Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Fault of Divinity
by Jacky the Serket
Summary: Something is about to happen. Something big, and something that could possibly put the whole world in jeopardy. With the divine forces being at each other's throats, it's the job of every guild in the region to try and stop them before the world ends. Follow the tale of Dice and his peers as they go against the gods themselves in this Pokemon Mystery Dungeon fanfic.
1. A Robbery Gone Wrong

Our story starts in the region of Dualsa. In the capital of Strikelm, to be exact. It was night time, and most of the city was currently asleep, the only ones walking outside were the night owls, the nocturnal Pokemon, and those who just wanted to enjoy a nightly stroll, but the streets were mostly inhabited by Zubats and Hoothoots as the night progressed. Street lights illuminated parts of the sidewalk for those that needed lights to see, and all around the sidewalk there were tall, impressive buildings reaching up into the sky. Most of them were residential buildings; apartments and the like, but a good few of them were also business buildings, all housing different offices which held different kinds of Pokemon.

The Pokemon didn't speak to each other, silently agreeing that this silence was too pleasant to break. Instead, they'd just give each other a nod and a smile, if they were feeling friendly. The only sounds that accompanied the city was possibly the footsteps on the sidewalk, but that only made the nighttime scene of the city even more pleasant. No one wanted to break this silence and ruining the wonderful scene.

One dared to break the silence, however. A Sneasel, and a young one at that, attempted to climb to the top of a particular building. It was the building of one of the most famous inventors in Dualsa. An Alakazam by the name of Innovan. Alakazams are already smart, but this one had proven to be smarter than the rest, considering the inventions he had built on his own, with no help from others. He was one of the reasons why Dualsa was even a relevant region, and he often kept the whole world on the edge of it's seat as they waited for him to unveil his latest creation, thus pushing the region into popularity.

The Sneasel, seeing that he couldn't get to the top of the house, stopped on the edge of a windowsill and took a moment to rest, pressing his body against the glass. He turned around to look inside the window, moonlight pouring through and illuminating the room inside. The Weasel Pokemon could see the desk inside, along with bookcases lining the walls.

The dark type grinned before unsheathing his claws. Time for one of his greatest heists yet. He pressed his claw down on the window and then cut in a big circle, leaving an ear-piercing screech to fill the air, disturbing the silence. It was like the glass itself was crying out in protest, but the Sneasel continued on without hesitation.

Once the circle was complete, the Pokemon pushed the circle forward. It popped out of the window and fell onto the desk, hitting the furniture piece with a thud. The grin on the Pokemon's face widened and he jumped inside, jumping past the desk and landing silently on his feet.

The Sneasel looked around the room, glancing at the bookcases and inventions that decorated the room. There was an old printing press in the back of the room. That was one of the Alakazam's first creations. He had first built it when he just involved into an Alakazam. It really revolutionized how news had gotten around, though it was also giving the Smeargles a run for their money. Prior to the creation of the press, they wrote up all of the news, but now the best they can do is draw some pictures for the newspaper.

While the dark type was able to identify some of the machines in the room, such as the piano in the corner (Innovan didn't invent it, but he was presenting it as if he had), though some of these machines he couldn't identify. There was one giant dome with wheels on the bottom, and there was also a few either unfinished or odd looking machines lying around.

"Dice, this may just be your biggest theft yet," he said as he held back a snicker. The Sneasel knew how to be quiet. If he wanted to, he could be as quiet as a mouse. As agile as a cat. He could just slip in and get out, most likely going completely unnoticed.

Dice came across a giant, spiral staircase, leading to other floors of the building. The Sneasel walked down the stairs and went to the very first floor of the house. He had passed three other floors on the way down. This place was gigantic, but it was all for a single Pokemon. You'd think they'd find a better use for the money and materials than using it to make a floor to look at plants and rocks.

The Pokemon then came across a room that, like the others, was lined with bookshelves, but in the middle there was a small work table, littered with tools and books alike. It was illuminated only by a small candle, and in the light of the candle was a small tablet. Just what Dice had been looking for.

It had said in the news that Innovan had found some type of ancient tablet while out on an expedition. The pokemon holed up in his house for a full month before telling the world that he was close to cracking the message in the tablet. He had said it was something important. Something about some future event involving the gods and how they would come down or some ridiculous event like that. Dice wasn't paying much attention while reading about it. He was just thinking about how much some wannabe archaeologist would pay for something like this.

He chuckled and walked towards the table, looking down at the tablet.

"This is too easy," Dice whispered to himself as he reached for the stone tablet. He was expecting a bit more security if it was that important. Maybe the old Pokemon was just milking his fame so he'd get money for his "research". Right before his hand could wrap around this apparently important tablet, there was a loud ' _creeeak'_ from behind him.

Dice's ears perked up and he gasped. Thinking quickly, he grabbed the candle by the base. Gripping the source of light tightly, he spun around. While the candle didn't light up much in the room, he noticed the glowing blue ball of energy, illuminating the Alakazam's face with it's blue light.

Dice quickly blew out the candle, plunging the rest of the room into darkness. He dropped the candle and ran away from the table, going to the side of the room. The ball of blue disappeared and Sneasel let out a sigh. This wasn't supposed to happen…

"I know where you are, thief," the old Pokemon said as he looked around. "I can sense your presence. You may as well come out. I've alerted the authorities. They will be here soon. Give yourself up now and I may ask them to let you go."

" _Fat chance of that happening,"_ Dice thought to himself as he sharpened his claws against one another. Rubbing his claws together made a faint scraping sound, causing the Alakazam to look towards the pokemon's location.

Innovan, without speaking at all, formed another ball, but instead of being made out of blue energy, it was darker. This was a more sinister looking energy. It was a shadow ball, and Innovan quickly threw it to where he had heard the scraping.

The Sneasel silently moved out of the way. The shadow ball hit the book case behind him and caused the books to fall down. His claws suddenly glowed a bright white as he jumped towards the psychic type. Even though it was dark in the room, he had long since adapted to dark environments, and being in dark environments was just what a Sneasel does, anyways, so finding the Alakazam was incredibly easy. Once he landed next to the Alakazam, he dug his claws into the psychic type's side.

"Sorry about this, old man," the thief said before he put his hand on the torso of the Alakazam. "It's just part of the job, you know?"

With that said, the weasel Pokemon pushed against the Alakazam with all the strength he could put behind it. Inovan stumbled backwards from the opposing force and had hit a bookcase. A few books fell on top of him and he groaned. The blows to the head caused him to sit down and put a hand to his head. He groaned once more, finding that he was unable to get up. He didn't have the energy. He was old. He couldn't keep a fight going for long.

"I appreciate that you want to protect your stuff," Dice said with a chuckle before walking to the table. He then felt around for the tablet. Once he felt the rough surface of the artifact, he wrapped his hand around it and then made his way to the door. "Unfortunately, I think I want this more than you do. See you later, old man."

Sneasel walked to the front door and unlocked it. He spun the doorknob and opened the door only to be met with a Hawlucha wearing a police hat. His arms were crossed and he glared at Dice as soon as he spotted him.

"Sir, you are under arrest," the bird pokemon said as soon as Dice opened the door. "You've been charged with breaking and entering," his eyes trailed down to the tablet in Dice's hands, "and it looks like stealing as well."

Dice blinked and looked at the tablet in his hands. He stared at it for only a moment or two before looking back at the officer, putting a grin on his face and acting as cool as he could be. "Look, officer, I know I got caught, but maybe if you just let this slide, I could let you in on some of the profits I get from this?"

The Hawlucha's eyes narrowed and Dice immediately knew he made a mistake. Right, this guy wasn't a corrupt cop. Just his luck. "What kind of officer do you think I am? Do you think I'd accept a bribe like that?"

"Well, I thought it was worth a shot." Dice chuckled and shrugged. "So, I'm guessing you're thinking I'll go easily, right?"

"I don't expect any criminal to go easily," the officer said with a shake of his head. "I'm expecting you to put up a fight."

Dice shook his head. "I'm not a fighter. Well, not usually, at least."

"Then you're a runner, huh?"

"I guess you could say that, yeah," the Sneasel said as he took a small step back.

This time, the officer chuckled, which left Dice confused. "Then I'll just have to make sure you don't run away."

Dice frowned and took another step back. He was about to turn around and run for it, but before he could, the Hawlucha moved forward, raised his arm up and brought it down with incredible force. It was so quick and sudden that Dice couldn't have possibly avoided it. It hit him right on the top of the head and he crumpled to the ground, the attack immediately knocking him unconscious.

Hawlucha looked down at the fallen Pokemon and kicked him for good measure. He then looked back at the two that had come with him; an Archen and a Bastiodon.

"Take him back to the station," he commanded. He looked back at Dice and took the tablet from his hands. "I'll make sure that Innovan and his artifact are alright. I'll meet you at the station, then we decide what to do with him.

"Sir yes sir!" The two Pokemon exclaimed as the Archen pulled the Sneasel onto her partner. After securing the criminal, the two walked back to the station as the Hawlucha walked into the inventor's house.

* * *

 **I'm going to be working on two stories at a time?! Woah!**

 **So, here's the thing, I'm not going to focus on this as much as I am my Homestuck story, but as soon as I finished that, my attention is going completely into this, so I do hope you enjoy reading the future chapters. Just don't expect a frequent updating schedule.**

 **Also, I don't know how summer is going to go for my typing and my update schedule, so I may not type as frequently during the summer either, so don't expect constant updates. I'll try to meet the schedule, but don't get your hopes up.**

 **Other than that...well, enjoy reading!**


	2. Interrogation

The Hawlucha walked back and forth in the interrogation room, arms crossed and an angered look on his face. It was the next day, and their thief had long since woken up. They had gotten into the room only ten minutes ago, and considering the Sneasel's sly remarks, he knew he wasn't going to enjoy it.

"Hey, officer Libre, I'm just saying you didn't have to hit me on the noggin, here." The pokemon gestured to the top of his head, where there was a small bump due to the powerful blow he had gotten last night. "I would have gone without a fight if you just asked."

"It's officer Machon to you." The Hawlucha walked forward and put his hands on the table. Using his arms for support, he leaned closer to the Sneasel, who stared back at him with a smug grin. "And I don't take any chances. You aren't tricking me, thief. You were trying to run away. Don't deny that."

"I'm a man of dignity, I'll have you know." Dice chuckled, leaning against the table as he did. He put his elbows on the surface of the table. Resting his head in his hands, he leaned forward towards the officer. "In fact, I'm going to do you a favor. You already know that I broke into the old man's house, right?"

Due to the small amount of distance between the two, Machon leaned away just slightly and nodded. "All of the evidence points to you, yes. We already know you did it, so don't go trying to deny it."

"Oh, are you kidding me? I wouldn't deny that. I don't deny any of my crimes. Here, let me do something." Dice brought out one of his claws, and Machon bought up a fist in response. Dice chuckled. "Come on, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just doing something, and even if I do try to attack you, all you gotta do is bonk me on the head again

The Hawlucha stared at him with a look of doubt, but after a few moments, he brought his hand down and nodded. "Do as you must. Just don't try anything."

Dice nodded and pressed his claw down on the wooden table. He scratched a capital 'R' into the table and put a line underneath that. He moved his finger to the right and scratched a capital 'W' into the table. He also put a line underneath that. He then scratched one tally mark under the 'R'. He looked up at Machon with a grin.

"So, I'm a nice guy. I'll give you a chance to guess what other crimes I did. Guess it right, and I'll admit to them. You can get it wrong only three times. After that, my lips are sealed, and since I'm cooperating with you, I think my sentence should be shortened. We have a deal?"

The officer frowned and stared at the Sneasel. Dice had a good feeling that he caught the officer by surprise. How many times has this officer seen someone admit to their crimes. Dice doubted he's seen that a lot.

Hawlucha walked over to the door. He opened it and poked his head out of the room. "Get me a list of crimes in the city of Strikelm." He then looked back at Dice and nodded. "You have a deal, thief, though I'm not sure about shortening your sentence. We'll see after this is through."

"The name's Dice," the weasel pokemon said as he brought his claws underneath the table. The officer seemed to not care about the vandalism he just caused to police property. He should consider himself lucky, then. That's a crime he wasn't going to accuse him of.

"Whatever," the officer said as the door opened once more. A Kirlia walked through the door, wearing a pair of glasses and carrying a few pieces of paper. She walked to the Hawlucha and offered the paper.

"How you doin', doll?" Dice said with a chuckle, giving the psychic-type a wink. The Kirlia looked at him and glared before she turned around and walked away, slamming the door behind her. "Wow, that's cold even for me, and I'm an ice type."

"She already has someone, you know," the officer said as he put the papers on the table. So many crimes committed in the last couple months. Luckily, most of the criminals had been caught, which narrowed it down, but there was still a lot to pick from.

"You stole from the Tabit family?" They were a rich family of Persians that lived in the capital. They had someone break into their house about a month ago.

"Strike one. Didn't do that, but I probably should have. Heard that those guys were loaded."

Machon looked up from the papers to see that Dice was scratching a tally mark underneath the capital 'W'. Once he was finished, the dark-type looked back up at him, giving him a look that told him to continue.

"Right...let's see…" Machon looked back down at the papers. No, Dice couldn't have stolen from the charity. He didn't seem that heartless, though perhaps he was only pretending. "You stole from another inventor, didn't you? The Klink brothers? A prototype of one of their inventions were missing. It was you, correct?"

"You got it." Dice scratched another tally mark into the desk, this time under the capital 'R'

"Hmm...the assault last week? A Leavanny was found in an alleyway. Heavily injured. All of her possessions were stolen. Was that you?"

Dice narrowed his eyes just slightly and put another tally mark underneath the 'W'. This was more aggressive as he dug the tip of his claw down into the wooden table and brought it down, not stopping until he hit the edge of the table.

"I don't just assault people," the pokemon said with a shake of his head and an edge in his voice. "Sure, I did it to that old man inventor, but that was only because I have to. I don't go around mugging people. Strike two. Start using that brain of yours, Libre."

The Hawlucha narrowed his eyes as well and shook his head. "You stole from the Pokemon Bank down the street from here? You stole a few berries and gummies, correct?"

"Got that." Dice was slowly starting to calm down. Though that edge was still there, it wasn't as noticeable as before. "Some pretty good berries, too, but I sold the gummies. Keep going. You may find yourself on a roll soon."

"You stole from the dojo a few blocks down from here? The thief had broke into the window, like you did last night."

"Yep, did that. Got a few good possessions, but I don't think it was worth it in the end." Dice left another scratch and chuckled. "You got four now. At this rate I'll never get out of jail."

Hawlucha grinned and nodded. "We can only hope, can't we?" His eyes scanned through the paper, and a minute later he shook his head. He was trying to remember how the crime scenes looked, but...he was drawing a blank.

"Got anything, officer?"

"Be quiet," he muttered. Another minute had passed and he still had nothing. He smacked one of his hands down on the table out of frustration and looked up. "You stole from the museum, didn't you? You took the ancient armor that was stolen two months ago."

Machon was just making a wild guess by now. He had to guess something, or else this was going nowhere. Machon didn't remember how the robbery had happened. They actually had no idea how someone could avoid all of the guards in the museum, but he had to guess.

"Honestly, I wish I did that, but no. Don't even know the guy who did it." Dice chuckled and put his claw down next to the two other tallymarks. He swiped down and left another mark in the table, indicating that Machon was wrong for the third time.

"Strike three," Dice stated, a hint of cockiness in his voice. Only four crimes? The sentence couldn't be that bad. "How long would you say I have to stay locked up?"

"I'm not the one that decides your sentence," the officer said as he rounded up the papers. He had hoped to get this guy for more crimes than four. He just knew this guy was to blame for many of the crimes around, but...he probably got all he could out of him. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

As the Hawlucha walked out of the room, Dice chuckled and put his feet up on the surface of the table. Man, only four crimes? He's done a whole lot more of them in the capital alone. He got lucky here. Thankfully the officer was an idiot and couldn't guess correctly.

A few minutes later, as Dice was getting comfortable, Machon walked back into the room. He wasn't carrying the papers anymore, so Dice just assumed he gave them to that cutie Kirlia from earlier.

"Get your feet off the table," he said as he walked back towards the table.

"Alright. You're the boss." The Sneasel shrugged and put his feet down, setting the on the floor. He rested his hands on the back of his head and looked at Machon, that grin that he had for a few minutes now was still present. "So, what's my sentence?"

"The judge has given you two options," The Hawlucha said, sitting at a chair that was on his side of the table. "Though if it were me, I'd just sentence you to ten years in jail."

"Good to know," Dice said with a chuckle, "but there are two options? Ten years in jail and something else, right?"

"Yes, well, you can either take your ten years in jail and then be released, or you have to sign up for the adventure guild in town. There you can repay your debt to society by doing something meaningful with your life."

"Wow, harsh." Dice shook his head. "So I'm either locked up for ten years or I join the guild? The guild doesn't sound bad, you know. I'll just take that option."

"You realize that once you sign up, you can't leave the guild, correct?" Machon asked. "Not only do they make you stay for at least a year before you leave, due to the guild rules, but the court's going to make you stay for at least two years, but it'll most certainly be more, if I can help it. You need to know the conditions of this deal."

"I'm aware of that now," the Sneasel said as he moved his hands down to his sides. "Still, it doesn't seem that bad, now does it? I think I'll take that."

Machon nodded. "Well, that's a shame. I would have liked seeing you locked up." The pokemon then stood up and walked towards the door. "You'll be escorted to the guild in about an hour. We'll bring you a meal before you get there. You'll meet the guild leaders and be assigned a team, and after that, I honestly don't care what you do."

"Thanks for the words of encouragement." Dice gave the officer a mock salute as the bird pokemon shut the door. He chuckled and put his feet on the table once more. He avoided ten years in jail just by joining the guild? It was that easy? Jeez, this was going to be simple.


	3. The Dungeon Crawler Guild

"So, what's this place called?" the Sneasel asked as he looked up at the building that was going to be his new residence, apparently. It looked underwhelming, in a way. It was only a big tent with a few totem poles up front of various different Pokemon. Dice could make out a Hoothoot, a Yungoose, and what was maybe a Sigilyph. He couldn't tell for sure. It was poorly made.

"The Dungeon Crawlers guild," the Hawlucha officer said. Machon had insisted that he went with the fugitive to his new home, just to make sure he didn't try anything. The police officer was always so persistent, so nobody dared disagree with him. Besides, he knew fighting type moves, so he could take down Dice easily if he tried to escape.

Dice chuckled and shook his head, looking back at the officer. "Dungeon Crawlers?" he asked as he crossed his arms and looked back at the building. "Kind of a stupid name, and a bit childish, don't you think?"

"I'm sure it's better than what most people could come up with," the bird pokemon stated as he walked towards the entrance, gesturing for Dice to follow. They approached the door and Machon gave it a hard knock, making a surprising amount of noise.

The doors slowly creeped open and two heads popped out. One belonged to a Simipour, and the other belonged to a Simisear.

"Someone here?" the water type asked with a tilt of her head.

"Visitors?" the fire type had also asked.

"Oh, goodie!" They suddenly both leaped out of the doorway and hopped in front of the two, clapping hands together simultaneously.

"Welcome to the Dungeon Crawlers guild!" they both said in unison, both unable to hold back wide smiles that almost made Dice sick just looking at.

The Simipour curtseyed and put a hand on her chest. "My name is Cumuli, and I'm one of the greeters of the guild! Pleasure to meet you! Hope you have a wonderful time here!"

"And I am Alaze!" The Simisear gave the two pokemon a thumbs up before putting his hands on his hips, looking up at the sky in some sort of victorious pose. "I am also a greeter, and Cumui's brother! I hope you enjoy your stay here."

Cumuli giggled and looked at Alaze. "Oh! Wait, I think we're forgetting someone, aren't we?"

"Oh, yes we are, sister dear." Alaze chuckled and looked back at the two visitors in front of them. Neither of them looked amused, but the fire-type hoped that this next introduction would be the real show stopper. "We're missing the final member of our group!"

Alaze and Cumuli both looked at the door and, in perfect unison, brought their hands up to their mouths and called out, "Come on out now!"

A few seconds passed and it was obvious that Cumuli and Alaze weren't expecting the silence.

"Excuse me for a moment," the water-type said and walked over to the door. "Ginseng! You need to get out here!"

While Cumuli proceeded to get into a quiet argument with whoever was behind the door, Dice looked back at Machon. "You've seen something like this before?"

Machon shook his head. "Never been to the guild before, if I'm going to be honest. Heard stories of these guys, though. They try to put on a good introduction; give your visit a good beginning. I'm guessing they haven't worked it out yet."

Dice chuckled. "Well, their failure's more amusing than their actual show."

"Oh, here they come!" Cumuli bounced back to the side of Alaze and the two siblings clapped their hands. "Introducing the last of the greeter siblings! The one, the only-"

"Ginseng!" Suddenly, a Simisage bounced out of the door and, almost reluctantly, put her hand to her head in a mock salute, giving the visitors a stare with narrowed eyes. "Greeter Ginseng reporting for duty! You enjoy your stay! We will do our best to suit your needs!"

Cumuli clapped her hands together and looked at Ginseng. "Yay, we finally did it!" She ran to the grass type and gave her a hug. "Thank you so much! We've been working on this forever!"

"Yeah, I know," the Simisage muttered with a nod of her head. "You've been dragging me to your little performances for months now. Honestly, you should be more focused on your job. We actually have visitors here. Now, excuse me."

Ginseng gently pushed Cumuli away from her and looked at Machon. She nodded to the officer and gave him another salute. "Oh, officer Machon. You're a...very high ranked officer. Is something wrong?"

"Oh, so you know my work." The officer chuckled, a grin on his face due to the recognition. The officer pushed the Sneasel to Ginseng and nodded. "This is a prisoner who decided to work in the Pokemon guild instead of facing a sentence in jail."

"Oh, really?" Ginseng glanced at Dice and nodded before looking back at Machon. "So you want me to take him to the guild leaders, then?"

Machon nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that," he said. "Makes my job easier if you take over from here."

"Right. We'll take care of him." Ginseng then grabbed Dice by the arm and walked towards the entrance of the guild. She gestured towards her siblings that they needed to get going.

"Oh, a real criminal?" Cumuli asked as she tilted her head, moving it towards Dice just slightly. "That's really dramatic right there! Imagine all the stories this person could tell! All about infiltrating high security areas and running from the law."

"I agree, sister. Those stories could be full of drama, full of adventure, and, possibly, even romance!" Alaze brought a hand to his chest and looked at Dice. "We must learn your stories later on, dear criminal! I'm sure you'll have much to tell us."

"Oh, yes, I'm sure he does," Ginseng muttered as she walked into the building. "But he has to talk to the guild leaders, so excuse him for a moment."

Ginseng then walked further into the building. She rested her paw against her face and sighed. "My siblings are all about stories. All of the action and adventure. They want to be able to reenact those scenes. Put on a play, I guess. I suggest you don't tell them anything. They'll never let you leave."

Dice chuckled. "Yeah, and I don't want that. No offense, but your siblings are a bit odd."

"I get that a lot. Now let's keep moving."

Now, Dice had to say, while the guild didn't look that impressive on the outside, looking like nothing more than a giant circus tent, it looked amazing on the inside. On the inside, there were many different ways to go, and those hallways only branched off into many other hallways. Dice could only wonder how complex looking a map of this building would be. Actually, he'd rather not see that. Sounds like a headache waiting to happen.

Many pokemon walked past Dice as they continued moving through the building. There were all different types. There were strong pokemon such as Lucarios and Rhydons, decently strong pokemon such as Bastiodons and Raichus, and even weaker pokemon like Cottonees and Rattatas. A huge amount of pokemon, all different shapes and sizes, resided under this building. It was actually kind of impressive that they could all fit under one roof.

One of the most impressive rooms they had gotten to was basically a giant garden, filled with all types of giant flowers and some young trees that were slowly growing up towards the ceiling. The entire room had a nice aroma of flowers and there were many colors splashing the room.

"Here we are," Ginseng soon said as they approached a huge door made out of some type of wood. Maybe Oak? Birch? Dice didn't know about trees. He wasn't going to guess. Ginseng then put her paw up and gave the door a few good knocks.

A few moments later, the door opened just enough to reveal an Elekid wearing a black bowtie. He looked at the two, eyes lingering on Dice for just a bit longer, before looking at Ginseng. "You wish to speak to the guild leaders?"

"Yeah, Edison," the grass type said, and when the Elekid crossed his arms, she shook her head. "Sorry. Edison Sault."

The Elekid nodded, a small smile on his face. "Yes, that's right," he said before opening the door. "Right, well, you can talk to them. Come on in."

Ginseng nodded and walked into the room, pulling Dice in with her as she did.

The room looked...rather pretty, honestly. There were many flowers everywhere, just like the garden in the room they were just in, all ranging from different colors like purple, red and yellow. Decorating the walls were different types of awards. Ribbons, trophies or otherwise, all with little plaques next to them to describe the award, and in the middle were the guild leaders themselves.

One was a Butterfree who had somewhat smaller eyes than the average Butterfree, but her wings were huge and had a very elegant design to them. The other one was a Beedrill who had a scar next to his right eye and a small chip on his left stinger, but he was one of the biggest bug pokemon that Dice has ever seen. While most Beedrill were at least three feet (which is still taller than Dice, unfortunately for him), this bug was easily four feet tall, probably taller.

"Oh, hello Ginseng," the Butterfree said with a nod as her wings fluttered in greeting. Her eyes then went towards the Sneasel. "Oh? Who is this? You brought someone with you?"

The Simisage nodded. "Oh, yes. Officer Machon had brought this criminal to me. He chose to join the guild instead of facing a punishment in jail."

"Oh, really?" The Butterfree looked at the Beedrill, who stared at the dark type intently, for a few moments before flying over to the Sneasel, the Beedrill following close behind.

"So, what is your name? I'm Soara, and this is my partner Magnus," she gestured to the Beedrill next to her.

"The name's Dice," the Sneasel said with a nod. "So, I guess I'm joining the guild, huh? Where do I start?"

Soara chuckled. "I have a feeling you're thinking this is going to be easy, huh?" She turned towards her partner and shook her head. "Well, the thing here is…"

"It's not going to be easy, criminal," the Beedrill said. His voice was so loud and sudden that it almost caused Dice to jump. "This isn't a cakewalk. We don't go easy on our members. Rigorous training and making sure you're the best you can be. And for a criminal like you? We're especially not going easy on you."

Dice chuckled. "I think I can handle it," he said, keeping his calm demeanor as he crossed his arms and gave the Beedrill a cocky grin. "So, where do I start?"

Beedrill stared at the pokemon for a few moments before chuckling. "Alright, you little worm, before you start doing anything involving adventure teams, you need a partner."

"Oh, man. I don't have one of those." Dice's voice was filled with mock disappointment. "Guess I can't do anything then, huh?'

"No, no, you're doing something," Soara said before looking at the Elekid, Edison Sault. "Could you get Sashy for us, please?"

"Yes ma'am," the pokemon said with a nod before rushing out of the room, Ginseng chuckling as she watched the smaller pokemon rush out.

"Man, you're getting Sashy?" the pokemon asked. "You're in for a wild ride, Dice. Sashy isn't going to be slowing down for you."

"Oh, really?" Dice asked. "And who is this Sashy, huh? Some Ralts? A Honedge? Hitmonchan? Something to keep me in line, right?"

Soara shook her head. "Oh, not by far."

Dice was about to ask who his partner was going to be, but then he heard a loud, energetic cry come from outside of the room.

"Soara!" shouted a very excited Maractus as he rushed into the room. The Maractus looked like your normal Maractus, except he had two small roses on the top of each ear, probably a genetic feature, and a light blue sash around his neck. Maybe that's why he got that name, if it was just a nickname. "You wanted to see me?"

Soara chuckled and nodded. "Yes, we did," she said before looking at Magnus. "You want to explain it to him?"

The Beedril nodded and cleared his throat. "Sashy! The moment you've been waiting for has arrived! You now have a partner of your very own! Enjoy your time with him. I'm sure you'll be spending a lot of time with him."

"My partner!?" Sashy's eyes practically shone with excitement from that as he looked over at Dice, and that's when Dice noticed that, even without the ears, the kid was a couple inches taller than him. Jeez, Ether everyone is just tall here or he's just really short…

The Maractus then clapped his thorny hands together. "You're going to be my partner?! Oh my goodness! I've been waiting for so long for a partner!"

Dice blinked and stared at Sashy. This kid was...young. He was barely even a grown up. Only around the age of sixteen at the least, or eighteen at the most. He then looked back at the two guild leaders. "You want me to be his partner?"

"Of course," Soara confirmed with a nod. "You need a partner before you do all this. Sashy has been needing a partner for a while, so we'll put two and two together, and we get two birds in one stone."

"I don't think that's how you say it," the Beedrill said.

"Pretty sure it is. Anyways, you two better get to know each other, and…" Soara looked to Edison Sault once more and smiled at him. "Edison Sault, dear sir, could you please lead these pokemon through the guild?"

"It'd be my pleasure, guild leader Soara," said the electric-type before walking towards the door, gesturing for the other two to follow. "Come now, we have a lot to show you."

Dice frowned and looked at Sashy, whose eyes were still glowing with excitement. Well, this was what he asked for, and it was better than jail, so, he took a deep breath and followed the Elekid, Sashy followed close behind.

* * *

 **Woah, I actually decided to update before the summer ended. Quite a shocker, really. But seriously, I do hope that I can start updating regularly at some point, hopefully once summer ends. I'm going to be busy during these last few weeks, though, so I may not update much still. You'll just have to wait. Sorry, guys.**


	4. A Guild Tour

"So, you're the one that stole from Innovan last night, correct?" The Elekid, Edison Sault, looked back at the two. One was eagerly following behind, and the other was more reluctant to follow.

"Word gets around fast, huh?" Dice asked with a chuckle. "It's a big town. Didn't expect people to know the day after."

"Oh, no, so far the paper hasn't said anything about the theft. It's just that I know Innovan personally. I invest in his inventions. I give him money to continue his works, and he gives me a part of his profits." Trying to keep his classy image, Edison adjusted his black bow tie. "As soon as you were arrested, he contacted me. He thought I should know."

"Wait, you get part of his profits?" The thief asked with a tilted head. "You must be rich! Why are you still working here?"

"I am only saving up my money," the assistant said. "I can't spend it all or be wasteful with it. This job provides a steady source of income, and my bosses are some of the greatest in Dualsa, so I'm staying."

Dice nodded and opened his mouth to say something else, but Sashy interjected with his own question, blurting in the middle of the sentence.

"Wait, you're a thief?" the cactus pokemon asked, turning to the other with a curious stare. "I didn't know that! Actually...I don't even know your name." He then let out an awkward chuckle.

"Oh, right. We didn't really meet, did we?" Those guild leaders did just push Dice upon this poor kid. He must have no idea what he's getting into. "The name's Dice. I already heard your name's Sashy, and yeah, I guess you could call me a thief. Only reason why I'm here, really."

"Oh, okay…" Sashy's eyes trailed off to the side, not looking as enthusiastic as before now that he figured out his partner's background. He quickly smiled again and looked back at Dice. "Well, don't worry! A year or two in the guild and you'll never want to steal from a pokemon ever again!"

Dice chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sure that'll happen." He held back the urge to roll his eyes before looking back at Sault. "So...Edison, where're we going first?"

"That's Edison Sault to you, sir," the electric type said, not bothering to look back at the other two. "Only those very close to me call me Edison. Now, to answer your question, we're going to the dining room. Showing you where you'll be eating."

"Oh, dinner. Nice." Dice nodded and patted a paw to his stomach. "I haven't eaten much today. Been a few hours since I've eaten. When is dinner?"

"In a couple more hours. You'll just have to wait. We don't have early meals, so you can't have any small meals until then."

Dice, even though he had a rather disappointed look on his face, nodded once more and soon after the group fell silent as they continued walking. A minute or two later, Dice felt a sharp prick on his arm. He winced and looked at Sashy, who had apparently poked him with his spikes.

Sashy smiled at him, waved, and opened his other hand, which held an Oran berry, with only a few small holes in it where Sashy's spikes had penetrated the surface of the berry. He offered it to Dice with a wide smile.

"Oh, thanks," Dice muttered before picking up the berry and taking a bite. He was surprised by how tasty the berry was. Very sweet and juicy. Sure, he was more of a carnivore, but he could accept eating a berry every now and then, and he was too hungry to refuse anyways. Did these come from the guild? If so, then he couldn't wait until it was actually dinner time. The food here was hopefully just as tasty.

"Here we are," the Elekid said after a couple more minutes. Dice, who had finished his berry a while ago, looked up and noticed the room they had entered.

It was a gigantic room, and it looked like it took up most of the space around here. Most of this building probably consisted of the dining room, and the other half...most likely consisted of bedrooms for the members. Maybe one meeting room, but that's probably it.

The room was long. So long, in fact, that Dice could barely see the Pokemon on the other side of the room. There were many other entrances to the room, and pokemon came and left as they pleased. In the middle of the room, there was a giant table that went from one end of the room to the other, and placed on the table were salt shakers and other utensils for eating. Thinking of this entire room being filled to the brim with pokemon was a tad bit overwhelming, and Dice was wondering how chaotic lunch was going to be.

"This is the dining room," said the electric-type. "Though, you probably figured that out upon entering. We have a large staff of chefs and waiters that cook and prepare the table day in and day out. They will serve you and give you what you need. I suggest you be polite to them. Most of the staff don't take kindly to rudeness at the dinner table. Just remember your manners, and you should be fine."

Dice nodded, still very impressed by the size of the room. "Yeah, okay...understandable." He looked back at Edison Sault and shook his head. "How big is this place, anyways?"

"What place? The room or the building itself?" Edison turned to them with a small grin on his face, as if he was waiting for the question to arise just so he could talk some more. "Because, you see-"

"This room is only a small part of a huuuuge building!" Sashy hopped into the air, becoming visibly excited just by talking about the guild. "The surface floor of this place is kind of small. We have the dining room, a room where we train for going out on quests, a few bedrooms for some of the Pokemon, and a huge garden that's just before the guildmasters room! It may look small on the outside, but we've managed to make it huge on the inside with the help of some really, really powerful psychic types and others! The bottom floors, underground, hold a bunch of other bedrooms and stuff. It's really cool!"

The Elekid blinked and looked at Sashy, who realized he had interrupted the assistant and let out a nervous chuckle in response. "Yes, thank you, Sashy, but I think you should leave the explaining to me in the near future."

"Uh...yes, sir." Sashy nodded and gave the assistant a quick salute, even it if wasn't necessary.

Edison nodded and cleared his throat. "Well, this is the dining room. Let's go to the training room now."

"How long have you two been here?" Dice asked as they left the dining room.

"Well, I've been working for the guild for at least three years now. I took the job so I could make an impact on society. Sashy...how long have you been here?"

"Uh...almost three years, actually." The Maractus hopped up and down as he followed the Elekid . How much energy did this kid have? "I joined some time after you were hired. A few months, I think? I don't know, but I still remember when you were first starting out!"

"Oh, yes, and those were fun times, weren't they?" The Elekid shook his head and continued walking. It seemed like reminiscing about his first years here wasn't his favorite thing to do. "We've been here a while, to answer your question."

"Wow, that is a long time," Dice muttered before shaking his head. How long was he going to stay here? He already forgot how long the department wanted him to stay. Less than ten, he knew that. "And you haven't been able to do anything, kid?"

"Well, not exactly," the cactus shrugged as they continued moving. He took a moment to say hello to a passing Absol and Lampent before looking back at Dice. "I've been able to do a few small things in Strikelm, like help the police and stuff. I'm actually friends with some of the officers, but...I've never been able to go outside the city. I haven't had a partner, and I've been having an empty bed in my room ever since I've joined the guild. But now you're here, so that's all going to change now!"

"Yeah, aren't you lucky?" the Sneasel grinned and held back a chuckle. This kid was really excited to be working for the guild. Dice couldn't say he understood why, though. "Well, now we can go outside the city and help people, I guess. Bet you're happy about that."

The Maractus nodded as Edison stopped and looked back at them. "We're here," the electric type said.

This room was...not as big as the dining room, though that was understandable, considering how big the dining room was. Not as many people could fit in here, he was sure of that.

There were a few training items in the room. One of them was a rock wall, which a Geodude was trying to get to the top of. Off in the distance, against the left wall, were a few targets, and a ways away from those targets were piles of stone. Testing accuracy, Dice assumed. There were also many punching bags which all different kinds of pokemon were using, and in the middle, a Hitmontop and Raticate were engaged in battle on some sort of fighting ring, and they were really going at it.

"Got a lot of training equipment, huh?" The thief asked as he crossed his arms, still taking a good look around the room. "And I'm guessing you have some people to make sure the pokemon are getting in shape?"

"Well, yes. We have one for every field of fighting. One to focus on your endurance and how to defend yourself, another helps you with your reflexes and how to be more agile, and so on and so forth. More often than not, though, guildmaster Magnus comes in and watches over the training. He even engages some of the members in battle."

Dice chuckled. "That old bug likes to fight, I'm guessing?"

"Old bug!" Sashy practically gasped in surprised, staring at Dice with widened eyes. "He is not an old bug! He is a respectable bug! He and Soara are very famous in some parts of the world."

"I'm sure they are," Dice said with a shake of his head as he looked around. Can't make a joke around here, can he?

Sashy frowned and looked around the guild before smiling once more and grabbing Dice's hand, causing the Sneasel to yelp from the sudden pricks of the cactus hand. "I have to introduce you to someone!"

And just like that, the Sneasel was dragged away from the Elekid assistant and towards a Lucario that was busy with one of the punching bags. "Lucca! Lucca!" Sashy shouted, trying to get the fighting type's attention.

The Lucario suddenly turned around. Noticing his friend, he smiled. "Oh, hi!" greeted the canine-like pokemon, waving a paw at the two. Sashy let go of Dice's arm and jumped at the Lucario, who responded by hugging the cactus pokemon.

"I got a new partner!" Sashy could barely hold his excitement and was practically screaming at Lucca. "He's right there." Sashy pointed to Dice, who was just wondering how the Lucario could stand hugging a cactus.

"Oh!" Lucca then put the Maractus down and walked over to the Sneasel. "I'm Lucca! It's nice to meet you!"

"Uh, yeah, it's nice to meet you t-" Before Dice could finish his sentence, the Lucario picked him up and pulled him into a hug, squeezing him tightly. "Ow! Okay, watch your strength there, buddy."

"Oh, sorry." Lucca loosened his grip slightly and patted Dice on the head before putting him down. "So you're Sashy's partner? You're going to have a great partner, then! Sashy's one of the best people I know to be a part of a rescue team."

"Oh, heh, thanks, Lucca." A faint blush spread across the plant pokemon's face as he looked back at Dice. "We were just showing Dice here around the guild, just to get him settled in."

"Yes, and I think we're just about done here." Edison had by now walked over to the group of three, not looking very pleased about being abandoned. "Now, you know the basics, and I'm sure Sashy here can take you everywhere else, right?"

"That's right!"

"Good, so, I think I'll be leaving you to your own devices. I will see you at dinner. Have fun."

Sashy was just about to wave the Elekid goodbye, but then he had gotten a wonderful idea. "Oh! Edison! Edison Sault! Why don't you spar with us?"

The electric type blinked and turned around, raising what would be an eyebrow, if he had one. "Excuse me? No, I can't do that. I have work I should be doing. I am a busy pokemon, I'll have you know."

"Oh, come on, I'm sure it won't take that long," Dice said, crossing his arms as he did so. There was a smug grin on his face. "I'm sure beating someone like you wouldn't take that long."

Edison turned to Dice and narrowed his eyes just slightly. "What are you implying, criminal?" he asked. "Are you saying I'd be unable to fight?"

"I'm just saying that if you're so classy, you probably wouldn't even throw a punch, let alone win a battle." Dice chuckled. "That's why you're running away, huh? Guess I can't blame you, though. Being an assistant, you probably have a lot of excuses to use."

"Dice!" exclaimed the Sneasel's partner. "You can't just talk to him like that!"

"Sashy, I'll take care of this." Edison then took a step closer to the Sneasel, not looking amused in the slightest. "I'll have you know that I found myself as a training partner to guild leader Magnus himself, and I also helped him teach the members of the guild a few tricks. I know how to attack, and I know how to dodge."

"Oh, really?" Dice shook his head. "I find that hard to believe, Eddy. How about you prove it? Or are you too busy?"

There was silence among the two for what felt like a long time, both pokemon just staring at each other. Edison sighed and shook his head. "Later," he said. "I have no time for it now. Perhaps tomorrow, though. Tomorrow is going to be a big training day, so you can look forward to that."

"Oh, I definitely will," the Sneasel said as the Elekid began to walk away. He waved to the electric-type. "See you tomorrow then, Eddy."

Sashy frowned and moved to the Sneasel. He shook his head, showing his disapproval. "You really shouldn't talk to Edison like that," he said. "He works really hard to make sure the guild is in good shape. You should respect him."

"Hey, I'm just trying to have some fun." Dice shrugged before looking to the exit of the room. "So...you want to show me around the place a bit more?"

"Oh, yeah, I should probably do that," he said before turning to the Lucario. "Okay, good bye, Lucca, I gotta take this guy around the guild."

"Okay, goodbye!" The Lucario waved at them before turning around and kicking the punching bag, sending it flying towards the wall.

Sashy nodded and grabbed the Sneasel's arm once more before running towards the exit, ready to give his own version of the tour, and Dice just prepared himself for what would happen next in this crazy place.

* * *

 **Getting back into the swing of things! School's started up again, so hopefully I can supply you with some chapters once again. Typing may be a bit more difficult since I won't have much time to do it in school, but that just gives me more of a reason to do it at home, which would be a good thing. I hope you enjoy this, though! Until next time! See ya!**


	5. The First Day of Many

Dice was finding it hard to keep up. Though he had eaten the oran berry, it wasn't enough to refill his energy, and Sashy still had the energy to tire out a Vigoroth and run a couple laps around the guild afterwards.

Of course, going through all the winding hallways wasn't helping at all. There were countless amounts of doors on each side of the hallways, probably leading to bedrooms and other things that weren't important to the tour. It didn't help with figuring out where he was in the building, though.

After a few minutes, Sashy stopped and turned around. He let go of Dice's hand and brought both his arms up. "Here we are! The mission room!"

The mission room didn't look like anything impressive compared to the other rooms. It was smaller than both the dining room and the training room, and the two things that really deserved your attention were two giant billboards hanging on the walls. All over the billboards were different types of papers. Some looked to be hand written, while others were printed out, probably on some printing press. Paper covered the entirety of the two billboards. You couldn't find a single spot that wasn't covered

In between each of the billboards, there was a small booth that didn't look like it had received proper maintenance. A Hoothoot who had obviously fallen asleep was in the booth, resting on the surface of the counter and he looked like he was enjoying his rest.

"This is the mission room," Sashy said. "This is where you can sign yourself up for a mission. They vary from one thing to another, like finding someone's lost item or saving a lost Pokemon. Those are all on the billboard to the left. On the right, though, that billboard is full of wanted posters. Evil criminals who need to be brought to justice. There are all kinds of criminals on this board."

"Let me see this," Dice muttered before walking to the billboard that was on the right and examining all of the posters. After about a minute of staring, he chuckled and poked at a poster that had a Jumpluff on it. "I think I met this guy in a bar once."

Sashy let out a laugh and nodded. "Well, considering you're a criminal, you may know some people."

Dice nodded and then looked around the room. He found a small passageway that led to what looked like another room and tilted his head slightly. Without asking Sashy, he walked down the passageway and into the room.

This room was actually bigger than the mission room, but it was completely different from the dining room and the training room. This room was filled with small structures, all having their own little decorations. Some had scrolls with writing on them that Dice didn't bother to read, some had all kinds of berries or even some gummis, and others had simple food items, like some sort of offering. All of the shrines, though, had some incense burning nearby. Maybe to get rid of the smell of rotten food that would surely fill the room every now and then, what with all this food that was left to rot.

"What's this place?" Dice asked as he looked back at the Maractus, who had followed him as soon as he noticed Dice was moving.

"Oh, uh, this is the worship room. I guess you could call it that." Sashy let out a chuckle and walked to the structure at the far left end of the room. A dark blue structure with red lines painted here and there and a small bowl of water being the centerpiece. "When some pokemon embark on missions, they give offerings to the god pokemon of their choice. They ask for luck or for guidance. This one here belongs to Kyogre. Mostly water types leave offerings for him."

Dice chuckled and shook his head. "God pokemon, huh?" Honestly, he never believed in the silly stories of gods being in the world. If there were gods, then wouldn't they show themselves to the world? Of course, some people were just too dumb to ask those kind of questions.

He understood why religion was so present in Dualsa, though. According to legend, Dualsa was either right above the distortion world, the home of Giratina, or was the place where the gods went to fight. You know, those like Palkia and Dialga, as well as Kyogre and Groudon. He still thought it was kind of absurd though. Despite this, Dice felt the need to question Sashy still. "So, you got a god you worship?"

"Oh, uh…" Sashy ran to the other side of the room, the far right, and gestured to the dark red shrine that had two burning torches in front of it, as well as a pile of dirt, along with some apples and seeds. A pile of dirt. Sounds like the perfect gift for an all powerful god. "Groudon. God of the land."

"It's because you're a cactus, isn't it?" Dice asked, holding back another chuckle. "Or because he provides desert? I mean, it makes sense. I'm not going to make fun of you."

"Uh, I guess that's a part of it, yeah." Sashy shook his head. "But it's more than that. Groudon is practically a savior. He lets the crops grow in the first place. Shaymin, goddess of flowers, helps sometimes, yes, but Groudon lets them grow and allows them to take root. If he gets angry, the whole world would have a famine. We'd have to resort to eating each other, and that'd be awful!"

Sashy felt the urge to mention that pokemon still eat each other, and it was actually a very common thing out in the wilderness, but he chose to remain silent for the kids sake. It was probably smart to just let the kid keep talking.

Sashy looked down the line at Kyogre's shrine and scratched the back of his head. "Well, that, and I don't like Kyogre. You heard the stories, right? Kyogre fights with Groudon to see who wins. Groudon wants to expand the land, and Kyogre wants to expand the oceans. If Kyogre gets what he wants...he'll flood the world. I can't live with all that water."

"Well, at least you have good reasons." Sneasel looked up and down the line of shrines, counting them all in his head. There were twenty in total, and some were more used than others. Some of them seemed like they were barely used at all, which was probably good considering the least used one out of the twenty was obviously Giratina.

Though Dice didn't know much at all about religion, and he didn't believe in any gods, he could immediately tell the dark grey altar belonged to Giratina due to the mirror that was hanging on the altar. It was believed that you could speak to the devil pokemon through a mirror if it's just the right time. Dice couldn't help but wonder how many pokemon had actually tried something as stupid as that.

"Uh...you have anyone you worship, Dice?" Sashy asked as the Sneasel turned to him. He seemed to be a bit uncomfortable talking about religion. Dice wasn't sure why, but he just shrugged it off.

"Can't say I really do," he said. "I mean...not someone that I worship every day or anything. Just...you know, no one that I put all of my belief in."

"Oh, yeah...that makes sense."

But it was a lie. Luckily Dice was good at lying, and Sashy seemed to be oblivious, or his lie might have been caught. The only reason why he lied was because people that didn't really believe in gods weren't necessarily well liked in the Pokemon community. He was sure Sashy wouldn't be rude about it or anything, but he wanted to avoid that sort of drama. He's actually lied about his religion many times before. He really wished people weren't so nosy about that sort of thing.

"You know, some people have been saying that the gods are getting angry," Sashy said, though Dice wasn't paying much attention to what was being spoken. "Well, I don't think they said angry, but they're not happy, that's for sure."

"Oh, really?" Dice said in an uncaring tone as he glanced at the shrines. He had to admit, some good work was put into making these things. This was definitely made to last. "Why do they think that? Some people have been talking to the gods or something?"

"Actually, uh...yeah." The cactus nodded. "Don't you read the paper? They were talking about it a couple of weeks ago, and they kept updating it for a couple of days."

"I don't read the paper very often," Dice said with a shrug. "I only ever read it to figure out what I'm going to steal. If there wasn't anything that looked really shiny in the paper, I didn't bother to read about it."

"Oh, well, they're talking about how priests of every cult have been unable to speak to their gods. It started with Groudon first, then it was Kyogre, Victini, and then Giratina, though not many people cared about that one. The gods don't usually just avoid their followers. They give them answers in one way or another, so this is really strange."

The cactus's eyes trailed towards the shrine of Groudon and he let out a small sigh, his ears drooping only slightly. "And I think that Groudon won't answer any prayers, either. That kind of makes me nervous, you know?"

"Yeah, that's a shame." Dice tried to make it sound like he cared at least a little bit, but he couldn't find it in him. He could care less about the gods. He didn't want to hear about the all mighty pokemon that may be fake for all he knew, and he definitely didn't want to worship them or try to speak to them. This might be news to Sashy, and it might make him disappointed, but it had no effect on Dice. He just didn't care.

Sashy hopped over to the Groudon shrine and frowned. Dice walked to the grass type's side to take a look at him. He seemed genuinely sad. It was almost enough to put a frown on Dice's face. Wow, this kid really believed in Groudon. Dice didn't care much about the gods, but for this kids sake, he was hoping that there'd be something good in the news about Groudon soon.

Though, in an instant, Sashy's frown turned into a smile. His ears shot up and he looked towards Dice, clapping his hands together as he looked at Dice with eyes full of energy. This kid definitely had problems controlling his emotions, or maybe he was just good at changing them on the spot. Either way...

"Hey, I got an idea!" the cactus pokemon exclaimed. "The tour's basically over. I don't think you need to see the infirmary, so we can get to the dining room! How about you try to find your way there? It'd help you get used to the building."

Dice frowned slightly but a few seconds later he just shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, sure. It gives us something to do until dinner." So they were going to the dining room, huh? He hasn't been there in a while. May take them a while to find it, but he was sure he could do it after a while.

Sashy nodded excitedly. "Great! Let's get going. We don't want to take too long, or we might just miss dinner."

The former thief nodded once more before turning around and walking out of the room. Right, what did he remember about this place? He tried to make a mental map, but quickly figured out he remembered nothing about the path they had took. He wasn't paying attention when his partner dragged him through the guild, so he had no idea where to go.

Sneasel looked at the two different paths to take in the mission room and, after only a few seconds of thinking, chose to go down the left path. "I think it's over here."

Sashy said nothing, but instead he held back a small giggle, which gave Dice a pretty good hint that he wasn't going the right way, so instead the Sneasel turned around and walked down the right path. "Or maybe this way. Come on. I'm sure we can make after a while."

Ugh, this was going to be harder than he thought…

By the time Dice had found his way through the passageways the guild possessed, which most of the time he had to ask Sashy for a hint, and made it to the dining room, dinner time had just begun, and Pokemon were beginning to flow into the dining room by the tens. The amount of noise wasn't nice on the ears.

"How many pokemon are there here?" Dice muttered to himself as he tried to find a spare place to sit at the table. Were there enough seats for everyone? It seemed almost impossible to seat that many people on one table. You'd think there'd be multiple tables here considering how many pokemon there were.

"I don't know, honestly," Sashy said as he looked around, that smile still on his face. He was so cheerful. Hopefully he wasn't like this everyday. Dice wouldn't be able to deal with this every single day. "Over a hundred, I know that much."

Dice nodded and soon afterwards he spied an open seat, right in the middle of the table. Dice quickly moved to the seat and sat down. Sashy picked the seat next to him and tapped his spiky hand against the table.

"Do you even need to eat?" Dice found himself asking after a few seconds of waiting. "You're a cactus after all, aren't you? And a grass type. Can't you just put your roots into the ground and gain energy like that?"

"Well, yeah, I can do that. Some of the grass types here do that. I know a Hoppip here that only eats by digging roots into the ground to save food for the others." Sashy chuckled and looked up from the wooden table, smiling at Dice. "But the food here is too delicious to pass up! Besides, I don't eat much. Normally just an apple. That feeds me for a week or so."

"A week? Jeez, kid, an apple can't even get me through a couple hours."

"Well, all of the cactus pokemon; Cacturnes, Cacneas and Maractuses can store food for later use. We don't need much to keep us fed or hydrated, so we store the rest of it."

"Wish I could do that." Dice chuckled and looked up and down the table. "When's the food getting here, huh? Been a long day, and I'm starving."

"Oh, guild master Magnus and Soara have to make a speech first," he said, his smile still present. "When there's a new team, they make an announcement so everyone knows, and they also talk about other events."

Just as Sashy finished his sentence, there was an incredibly loud buzz coming from the front of the table, the far right side, causing all of the conversations of the pokemon around them to cease. Dice looked at the front of the table and saw the two guild leaders sitting there. Dice had also noticed that sitting next to them were Lucca, the Lucario they had met in the training room, and Edison Sault, the Elekid assistant.

"Hey, listen up now!" Magnus had yelled out, and his voice was surprisingly loud. The old man certainly had a voice. "Now, we have a couple announcements to make, so don't interrupt and you get to eat faster."

"The first thing we must announce is that we have a new team that needs to be registered!" This was Soara speaking, and while she was quieter than Magnus, Dice could hear that other people were muttering to each other, probably either repeating what she was saying, or asking what she said in the first place. "Could the members of that team please stand up? I think everyone would like to know the new members."

Before Dice could respond, Sashy had hopped out of his seat and was rushing to the front of the table. As he ran, there was a sound resembling the shake of a maraca, though this was normal for Maractuses, so no one batted an eye. Dice watched Sashy run across the room and noticed that other Pokemon were...smiling at him. They must be happy for him. ...how many friends did Sashy have here? He was definitely social.

"Come on, Dice!" Sashy shouted. The cactus Pokemon had already reached the front of the table. Once he had shouted to his partner, he turned to the guild leaders and began to converse, though Dice was too far away to hear.

Dice sighed and stood up before walking towards Sashy, looking at the Pokemon sitting at the table as he did. Not nearly as many of them smiled at him. He did notice that a lone Seel was clapping. The guy was probably just trying to make him feel better, though.

The Sneasel joined Sashy at the front of the table and waved at everyone who was seated. There were so many people here...all looking at him. He wasn't used to this at all. He normally went around with people not looking at him. So many people in the same room...almost overwhelming in a way.

Once the two had gotten to her side of the table, Soara cleared her throat and spoke once more, everyone in the room quickly grew silent to listen to her.

"These are the two members of our newest adventure team! One you have already known for a long time, I'm sure. It is our very own Sashy the Maractus."

The pokemon closest to the front all clapped, and that slowly spread down to the far end of the table. The clapping was terribly loud, and it was enough to hurt Dice's sensitive ears. His ears had been trained to pick up small sounds. Noises this loud had always hurt.

Soara then grabbed a small badge that was on the table next to her. The badge was small, but it looked very well crafted, and seemed to be made of bronze. It was the shape of a shield with two swords crossed over it. On the shield it said Sashy's name, Pokemon species, and the name of the guild. Soara presented the badge to Sashy and he quickly grabbed it and put it on his sash that was around his neck.

"And Sashy's partner. The newest member to the guild, so we expect a big welcome for him. This is Dice the Sneasel."

Not nearly as many claps from the seated pokemon, but Lucca was definitely clapping, and Dice bet that the Seel from earlier was as well. He didn't expect much clapping for him. He was new, and he was a stranger. Why should they clap for him?

Soara then flew over to him, a black handkerchief in her hands. Before he could grab it, she flew behind her and tied the handkerchief around his head so it covered his mouth, similar to what a bandit would do. How clever.

The Butterfree then presented Dice with a badge, the same shape as Sashy's badge, and it had the same information as well; Dice's name, pokemon species, and name of the guild. He grabbed the badge, put it onto his handkerchief before pulling it down over his chin so his mouth was uncovered.

"Now, together, these two make our newest adventure team! Team, um…" Soara then turned towards the two and tilted her head. "What's your team name?"

While Dice just shrugged, Sashy bounced up and clapped his hands together. That was certainly his favorite way to get someone's attention. "Team Silent Tempo!"

Dice frowned and looked at the cactus pokemon. "Silent Tempo?" he asked with a tilted head. That name sounded sort of stupid, honestly, but he wasn't just going to say that.

"What, you're quiet aren't you?" the Maractus responded. "And I like music. I make maraca sounds when I move. So, it's a silent tempo."

Soara nodded and looked down the table once more. Dice decided not to argue. Sure, let the kid have his fun. Not like he cared. He just wanted to get this done with and sit back down. "Team Silent Tempo! Now, let's give them all a big round of applause, shall we?"

Her question was answered with much applause, and Dice was sure that it was mostly for Sashy and not him. He knew so many people here, and they were obviously very happy for him.

"You may go back to your seats now," Soara said as Dice saw that a few Pokemon, probably staff members, were walking around the table, handing out plates and even silverware for some that didn't have claws or sharp teeth, like Sentret and such.

Dice nodded and walked to his seat, Sashy rushing past him with a few excited jumps thrown into the mix, along with some maraca noises. This kid was crazy.

"My second announcement," the Butterfree said, and though the pokemon around him seemed disappointed that they wouldn't be able to eat yet, they listened anyways, "is just a warning. As you may have known, for those that have gone out of the city recently, the pokemon outside that choose to live in the forests and caves are getting more and more hostile to us dungeon crawlers. I ask you all to be careful if you are ever to go out on a mission. Remember, you are all important to the guild, and your loss will affect us, so don't do anything ridiculous."

"And don't forget the violent cults," Magnus quickly added. "Cult violence has been getting more common all over the region. You all need to be careful and watch out for these cults. If you see them, try to take them in. If you can't, well, don't be stupid. You gotta run. Like Soara said, you're all important parts of the guild. We don't want to lose you."

There was a few mutters going around the dinner table. Dice was able to pick up on some of the conversations as he walked by. Something about the wild pokemon around the city, how someone heard there was cult violence just north of the city, and other things about how it may be a bit more dangerous to go out now, but the talking died down as quickly as it started and everyone looked back towards the insects.

"And that's about it," the guild leader said with a chuckle. "Now, dig in, everyone. No use letting good food just sit there."

Dice sat down just as a Lampent came by and put his food down. He nodded to the pokemon and then looked at his food. A nice looking steak (this place served meat? He was almost surprised), along with some berries if he wanted to eat those instead. He took out his claws and cut a small section of the steak before popping it into his mouth.

The Sneasel smiled from the taste of the steak. It was actually...really good. Like the berry before, this steak was really delicious. Well cooked, and not even burnt, which is what he'd gotten used to after eating out in shady bars and restaurants. Food this good was very much welcomed. Judging by how friendly this place was, he actually thought they wouldn't serve meat. He was pleasantly surprised.

"Hey, who's the cook?" Dice asked as he glanced at Sashy, who was currently stuffing his face with an apple.

"Oh, it's a Kabutops," the cactus said, his mouth full of food. He chuckled and swallowed. "His name's Jurami, and he's gotta be one of the best cooks in the region! Though, I haven't tried food from many other cooks."

Dice nodded. "I'll have to talk to him later. Tell him he makes good food."

Sashy noded. "Yeah, all of the meat eaters love him. He usually focuses on meat, but he can make salad and stuff too. He made a great meal for me once when I was really hungry after a long day of work. He's a nice guy."

The Sneasel just gave a hum of acknowledgement and then went back to his food. He continued to eat his food until, eventually, much quicker than he though, actually, it was gone. He chuckled and looked at Sashy, who was now drinking a glass of water, chugging it down like his life depended on it.

"You thirsty?" the former thief asked.

"Hmm?" Sashy shook his head and put the glass down. "No, I'm just getting my fill of water. I'm not thirsty, but I have to drink more water so I can store some for later. I'm fine."

Dice nodded and then looked back at his plate. He took a quick look around the table to see what everyone else was doing. The dining room was filled with the sound of pokemon chatting with wide smiles on their faces as they stuffed themselves silly. Every once and awhile, some food would go flying across the table. At one point it got so bad that Magnus had to shout at them. Dice had to admit, he was surprised the Beedrill was loud enough to be heard over the crowd. It was pretty loud in there, after all.

Eventually, after about an hour or two, dinner had ended, and Dice had actually gotten into conversation with Sashy once more. He even got to talk to a pretty Krokorok that was sitting next to him. She seemed pretty nice, honestly, though didn't have much time for the flirts he peppered into their conversation.

"Guess we're off to bed," the Sneasel said as he stood up from the seat, waving to the Krokorok. He was pretty sure Caroli was her name. He wasn't paying much attention, but he'll definitely catch her name next time."Talk to you later?"

"Yeah, sure," the Krokorok said as she stood up. She then waved goodbye to the Sneasel. "Have fun tomorrow. Your first day on a team should be fun."

Dice nodded as Sashy suddenly grabbed his hand, causing the Sneasel to yelp from the sudden prick.

"We gotta go find my room," the Maractus said as he ran off, following the huge crowd of Pokemon that were flowing out of the dining room. Dice wasn't paying attention to where they were going, as he knew he would forget where they came from soon afterwards, and eventually they ended up in Sashy's room.

The room...wasn't anything special, honestly. There wasn't anything but a small desk in the corner of the room, which didn't even have a chair next to it. There were also two beds that were right in the middle. One of them...clearly looked slept in, while the other looked like it hadn't been touched in a long time.

"So, you sleep here?" the Sneasel asked as he approached the bed that hadn't been slept in. He grabbed the covers and brought them down just enough for him to sit on. "How long have you been sleeping on your own?"

"Uh...a really long time," the cactus muttered before shaking his head. "But now I got you! I won't be alone in this room! I have a partner."

Sashy hopped onto his bed and got himself comfortable with the one pillow on his bed, which had several holes in it, no doubt from Sashys spikes. "You know, not every Pokemon gets a room like this. Some Pokemon just can't sleep in a bed like this, like Ponytas. Those Pokemon either get stables or piles of hay. There's a different room for all types of Pokemon!"

"Right, that's nice." Dice got himself comfortable on his own bed and sighed. Man, this bed was actually pretty nice. Nice and soft...when had he gotten a resting place like this? Not in a long time. "Well, at least we get the good beds, right?"

"Yeah!" The cactus pokemon closed his eyes, ready to drift off into sleep. It was going to be difficult, after all the excitement of today, but he'd try. "Now get some sleep. We're going to have some fun tomorrow!"

Dice nodded. "Right, okay. Sure." The Sneasel, now laying on his left side, closed his eyes. He didn't have any problems falling asleep, unlike his partner. After all that happened, he was dying for a rest. It wasn't long until he drifted off to sleep.


	6. The Author has a Question

Hey, guys. So, I have a very important question for you.

So, after a bit of a long time away from fanfiction (it's a problem I have) and reading reviews and thinking about my pacing, I realize that this is going to take forever to come out. I'm assuming no one reading this wants to deal with that, right? So, I have a question for you.

Should I just shorten the schedule? Make updates happen every week instead of trying to do it every other week? Or should I do some chapter dump uploads? Where I upload how many chapters I have, at least until a certain point, maybe a time skip or when the day ends, or right after some really important event? I feel like that might be really good, because it makes it feel more like a novel (because the pacing on fanfictions is a separate beast that I cannot seem to handle), and it gives more material to read while I work on later chapters and some personal projects of mine.

I just want to know what you think, because I think this is sort of an important thing to figure out. Just leave an answer in a review or PM or something. Not entirely sure. Suggestions or answers are welcome. Thanks for taking your time to read this.


	7. Getting a Quest!

"So, how long have you been in the guild?" Dice asked as they walked through one of the many hallways the building had. It's a surprise anyone could navigate through the maze that was this building. Though, Dice not having a good sense of direction didn't help.

"A very long time," Brat said, not looking back at them and instead choosing to look forward still. Dice didn't really care, though. As long as they got to where they were supposed to go, he was alright. "It seems like such a long time ago."

"Well, when did you join the guild?"

Brat hummed to himself as he tried to think of an answer, a hand running through his hair. Apparently his memory wasn't the best.

"I don't remember much, unfortunately...I think I was around Sashy's age, though. I was still a Kirlia at the time. My partner, Loki, was a Zorua, while Lucca was a Riolu we had met while on a mission. We saved him from an angry Primeape and he hasn't left us since."

"And you just took him in? You didn't even know the guy, though. He could have been dangerous."

Brat shook his head. "Trust me, Lucca's one of the nicest people I know. He wouldn't hurt anyone unless he absolutely has to. I thought he said you talked to him. I would have thought his peaceful attitude was rather obvious."

"Well, yeah, I've seen him, but-"

"Then that should be enough for you, I'd say." Brat looked behind him at the two pokemon and chuckled before looking forward once more. "We have arrived. The quest room."

Dice blinked and looked around his surroundings. Sure enough, they were in the mission room. The telltale sign was the huge bulletin board on both sides of the room. This was definitely one of the most recognizable rooms in the guild.

"Let's see what's available for you," Brat said as he walked towards the bulletin that was, as Dice figured out after looking at some of the papers, for general missions like finding lost items. At least he wasn't sending them out to catch criminals. That sounds sorta challenging.

"Got anything particular in mind?" Dice asked as he joined Brat at the bulletin board, Shashy following close behind, but eyeing the area where all the temples were. Well, Dice knew where his partner was going before they left…

"Not really," Brat muttered before grabbing one of the papers and looking down at it. He hummed in thought before nodding and looked towards Dice. "This seems alright. A child lost in a cave. Doesn't seem too dangerous."

Brat then turned to the stand that was between the two billboards, where a Hoothoot perched, seeming to be in a deep sleep. Loki walked to the stand and tapped his hand against the wooden surface of the stand.

"Excuse me, Noctal? I need to ask you some things."

The owl's eyes suddenly shot open and it let out a loud squawk, causing Dice to cover his sensitive ears. He thought owls were supposed to be quiet…

"Who…? Who…?" The Hoothoot looked around for a moment before noticing Brat. His eyes narrowed just slightly and he cleared his throat. "Oh, yes, Brat. What is it that you want?"

The Gallade placed the piece of paper in front of Noctal. "Take a look at this, if you will. I was wondering what you thought about this quest for the new team."

"Hmm?" The Hoothoot looked down at the paper and Dice noticed his eyes rapidly moving back and forth, scanning the page. "Ornatro Cavern? Well, I'm surprised to figure out this even made it to the guild. It's a far ways away. I would've thought it'd go to some place closer to the caverns, but it's not impossible...you really think they should go there?"

"Well..." Brat looked back at the two before looking back at the Hoothoot. "It's not that dangerous for a new mission, I thought. As long as they don't go too far into the cave, they should be fine, and the idea that the child would be so far down the caves...the odds are slim."

"What's Ornatro Cavern?" Sashy asked with a tilt of his head, causing his rabbit-like ears to tilt to one side just slightly. "And why is it dangerous?"

"Ornatro Cavern," Noctal began, "is a system of caves that are filled with all different kinds of gems. It used to be a place to mine gemstones for things such as religious ceremonies, or just because they look nice. There's normally only pink gemstones, which is why Palkia worshipers often visit for a gemstone, however you can find blue, green and even red."

"Doesn't sound so bad," Dice said with a chuckle. "Heck, we can even grab a gemstone or two and try to sell them off. I think we'd make a pretty penny from that."

Hoothoot shook his head. "But the problem is that the further you go down in the cave, the more poisonous the air gets. It's not noticeable at the top, but the further you go in, you'll start to feel nauseous and dizzy. You'll start seeing things and become disoriented. Normally only rock, ground, ghost and poison types can handle such condition, since poison types are used to poisonous fumes, and the other types don't need to breathe."

"Well, the job doesn't describe what the child is," Brat muttered as he turned the paper around to read it once more. "It may be safe to assume they didn't go too far down into the cave, right?"

"Are you sure we can go in there, then?" Sashy asked with a frown. "It sounds like we may not be able to get out, and I don't like that thought.."

"As long as you are careful and think before you act, you should be alright," he said with a shake of his head. "I doubt the child in question is a ghost type, so you shouldn't have to go too far down into the cave system, and if you can't make it, don't be a hero. Just come back. We'll have some other team starting out do the job. I think I saw a Ghastly and Misdreavus that were just starting out. I'm sure they'd be interested."

"Well, we can try it for now, at least." Dice leaned against the stand as he spoke. "It can't be that bad, right? I'm sure we know our limits. Anything else we should worry about?"

"Yes, actually," Noctal said. "As you most likely heard from Soara, the Pokemon outside the borders of the cities are becoming more and more vicious. Rabid, even. I suggest that if you go there, be ready for a fight. Some Pokemon may attack you, and that's very bad for this Sneasel right here."

He gestured towards Dice and the ice type chuckled. "Oh, really?" he asked. "And why's that?"

"Well, aside from the ground types and the occasional poison types, there are also steel and rock types there. I'm not sure if you figured this out growing up, but ice and rocks don't mix very well."

Dice nodded. "Right, right. I got it," he said as he moved away from the stand. "I've handled a lot worse than some rock types who think they're tough. Either way, I think we're taking this mission. What do you think, kid?"

He turned to his Maractus partner and the grass type looked down at the ground. "Well...I guess we could try." The cactus shrugged. "We may not succeed, but we could try, at least."

"Yes, that's the spirit, Sashy." Brat grabbed the paper with the job information on it and handed it to Dice, who took it and rolled it up. "So, let's get you to the station. It's a long trip to the caverns. It'd be best if you started your journey as soon as possible."

"Oh, uh, can you...give me a moment?" Sashy asked, gesturing towards the path on the opposite side of the room. "I sort of want to visit the shrine."

Brat nodded, offering Sashy a warm smile. "Sure, go ahead. I understand." The cactus Pokemon nodded and ran towards the room that held all of the religious shrines. He then turned to Dice. "Do you want to join him?"

The Sneasel shook his head. "I don't think I need to visit," he said. "I don't need any divine intervention to help me out here."

"I see you have confidence in yourself. While that's good when out on the field, don't let it get the best of you. Confidence can blind ones mind." The Gallade looked towards the shrine room once more. "Lucca and I always visit the shrine before we go out on a mission. Loki doesn't even bother to step inside, though. He waits for us by the entrance of the guild until we finish. ."

"Really? You guys really don't strike me as religious people."

"I'm sure a lot of people in here don't. That does not mean there aren't many religious people here. Most people have a god they pray to just before leaving the guild. They pray for strength, wisdom, luck, or perhaps just guidance. It's always different."

"Even the guild leaders pray," Noctal commented, and the two glanced towards the bird. "I've seen them leave that room when I wake up in the middle of the day. Honestly, not having a god you pray to at least once every few days is the minority. Not just in the guild, but around the world."

"Exactly." Brat nodded and then tilted his head slightly. "What about you, Noctal? Is there a deity that you look up to? Someone you pray to? Perhaps a god of sleep? I know how much you enjoy your beauty sleep."

"There isn't a god of sleep, actually. Well, unless you count Darkrai as a god and not a demon, then I suppose there is one," the bird answered. "Doesn't mean that I pray to him, though. I don't think many people would pray to a god such as that."

"I'm sure a few pokemon would do that, you know." Dice noticed Brat take a quick glance at him before looking back at the Hoothoot. "The general public often believes that dark types exclusively pray to someone like Dialga."

"Yes, well, I can't say if they're right or wrong. You know dark types, Brat. They often-" Noctal stopped himself as he looked between the two pokemon. He shook his head and looked down at his foot. "Well, never mind. My point is that entities such as Darkrai are not as popular when it comes to worship."

Dice chuckled. "Sure you don't want to keep talking?" He leaned against the stand once more. "I kind of want to hear your opinion on dark types."

"I think I would like that as well." Dice glanced at the Gallade as he leaned against the desk, using his arm as support. "I'm sure Loki would get a real kick out of that, you know?"

Noctal frowned as best as he could, but it was difficult to do with a beak. He hopped back slightly and shook his head. He then started slowly hopping back and forth. He seemed rather uncomfortable as he looked between the two. "Well, uh...you see, um…"

"Okay, I'm back!" Dice turned around, much to Noctal's relief, and saw Sashy bouncing towards him. He smiled and waved at the kid with his claws hand. "Sorry that it took so long. I just...wanted to make sure I had mentioned everything I wanted to."

"Well, hopefully Groudon can help you in the caves," Dice said with a chuckle before looking at Brat. "So, we're going on our way now?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I believe so," he said before walking towards one of the paths out of the room. "I told Lucca to meet us at the station. He had gone to get you supplies, so you don't need to worry about being unequiped."

Both Dice and Sashy nodded as they followed the Zoroark through the halls of the adventure guild. After only a few minutes, they made it to the front door, where Alaze the Simisear, Cumuli the Simipour, and Ginseng the Simisage stood near the door. Cumuli noticed Brat and smiled before walking towards him.

"Hi, Brat!" The monkey pokemon waved at the guild member. "What's your team doing? We saw Lucca leave the guild an hour or two ago, and now you're leaving. Are you going on some big mission? Oh, you just have to tell me about it when you come back!"

Brat shook his head, though he did have an amused grin on his face. "No, no. That's not it." He turned to the two Pokemon following him and gestured to the two of them, Sashy waving for effect. "I'm just helping the new team choose their first mission. Lucca went out to buy supplies for them."

"Oh, that's really nice of you!" The water type let out a giggle and turned to the Sneasel and Maractus. "Then you two have to tell me about your adventure when you come back! I want to know all the details!"

"Cumuli," Ginseng muttered as she walked towards her sister, gently putting a hand on her shoulder. "You realize that you ask this of every team when they go out for a mission, right? They can't stay here all day and tell you what happened while they were out."

"Oh, but it's so exciting, sister dear!" Cumuli turned to her sister and pouted, similar to a child. "You can't expect me not to ask question! It's so exciting and dramatic! I'd love to be able to go through adventures such as that…"

"And I'm sure we will, one day." The grass type didn't sound that hopeful, however. She shook her head. "Either way, we can't keep these three here all day. They have places to be."

"Oh, right! Of course!" Cumuli stepped away and gestured to the door. "Off you go, brave adventurers! Go forth and be true dungeon crawlers! Make the guild proud, and let the evil of the world feel your painful sting!"

Brat chuckled. "Thank you, Cumuli," he said as Dice and Sashy moved towards the door. Before they were out completely, though, Brat turned around and looked back at Cumuli. "By the way, Loki was wondering if you wanted to meet him at the diner in an hour."

The Simipour's eyes seemed to sparkle out of excitement as she clapped her hands together. "Oh, yes yes yes! I would absolutely love that! Do tell him I'll meet him there, Brat!"

"I will if I see him." Brat then waved goodbye to the water monkey before turning back to the two rookies. "Now, let's keep moving."

As they stepped out into the bustling city of Strikelm, light from the sun shining down on them, Dice chuckled and gently elbowed the Gallade's waist, since it was the tallest thing he could reach. Brat looked down at him.

"So, Loki has a thing for Cumuli?" he asked with a grin on his face as he crossed his arms over his chest. "You're playing as the letter boy for the two of them, aren't you?"

Brat held back a chuckle and shook his head. "To my knowledge, they're just friends," he said. "As Loki said it, he started to tell her his adventure guild stories about two months ago. He said it was just to get her to be quiet, but after a while, he found that he enjoyed it. Loki says he thinks of her as a sister, but I can't say if that's the truth or not."

"I didn't know Loki and Cumuli were that close," Sashy said as he hopped along the two dark-types. "How often does he have lunch with her?"

"At least twice a week. He often has me ask her if she wants to meet up with him, though. I tried telling him that he should just do it, but he always insists someone else does."

"That's an obvious sign he likes her," Dice said with a chuckle. "Come on, I thought you'd be better at reading someone's emotions. I thought you psychic types could do that."

"Well, perhaps I just like to keep to myself." Brat shook his head. "Either way, let's hurry. We need to find a ride for you before they're all taken."

* * *

 **To be perfectly honest, not sure if I'm all that happy with this. The early chapters are going under much revision, and I'm just not proud of them in general. I'm much more excited about the later chapters, but until then these chapters are going to get some heavy changes to them before posting. Guess it can't be helped, huh? Anywho, I hope you enjoy, even if I don't.**


	8. A Long Ride

**A Long Ride**

The station that would lead Pokemon in and out of Stirkelm was always busy. With the hustle and bustle of people visiting the city, or just trying to move out and leave, Mudsdale and Rapidash came and left, carrying passengers and their luggage, which stayed in carts the horse pokemon had to pull behind them as they walked. With the news of the outside world becoming more dangerous, more and more pokemon preferred travelling via Rapidash rather than going on foot.

Once the group of three made it to the hub, they attempted to navigate through the crowd, looking for a pokemon that would be strong enough to take them to Ornatro Cavern. There were a wide selection of pokemon, too. Most were Mudsdale and Rapidash, but there was the occasional Sawsbuck, Stantler, and even Girafarig, who were probably all just looking to make quick cash by moving pokemon from one city to another.

"Judging by how much the two of you weigh, I'd suggest that you take a Rapidash as your ride." Brat gestured towards one of the flaming horses as he spoke. "I understand if you're worried about the flames, but don't worry; Rapidash can choose who their flames hurt. I doubt one would hurt you as long as you pay them."

"I think I'd prefer a Mudsdale," Dice muttered as he watched one of said Pokemon walk out of the station with a Wigglytuff and her Igglybuff child on it's back. "Fire isn't my thing. I'm sure you know that."

"Right, I can respect your choice." Brat nodded. "Just don't take too long picking a ride, alright? The sooner you start your quest, the sooner you can come back."

Dice was about to open his mouth, probably to suggest which pokemon to take for a ride, but then, out of the noise of the crowd, they heard a distinct, "Guys!"

The group of three turned around just in time to see a Lucario run towards them, a bag slung around the dog-like pokemon's shoulder. It was obviously Lucca. Dice had no doubts about that, and when the fighting type ran up and scooped them into a hug, it just confirmed his assumption.

"There you are!" The Lucario smiled and nuzzled his head against Dice, which he really didn't enjoy. He didn't think a Lucario would be so affectionate… "I was wondering when you would get here!"

"Yeah! We got here as soon as we could," Sashy had said as Lucario let both of them go, causing them to fall to the ground. Luckily, both of them landed on their feet with relative ease. Apparently Sashy was just used to this sort of thing happening. "We're ready to go on our mission!"

"Well, no you're not." The Lucario shook his head before slipping the bag off of his shoulder and handing it to Dice. He grabbed it and slung it around his own shoulder, adjusting the length of the strap so that it didn't drag against the ground while it was on his arm. When he finished his adjustments, he looked back up at the Lucario, who smiled and nodded at the two. "Now you're ready!"

"Oh, so this is all the stuff you were buying for us?" Dice opened the bag up and looked inside.

The first thing Dice had noticed was the money. His eye was naturally attracted to shiny objects, so seeing all the money that was stacked up has definitely grabbed his attention. There were some other objects in the bag, too. Some seeds, some berries, some apples and other snacks, and even two bottles of water. They were all put into neat little groups inside the bag. It's a surprise they didn't get all mixed up while the Lucario was running.

"There's a lot of stuff in here," Sashy muttered as Dice put the paper that had their quest information into the bag before closing it. "Are we going to need all of this?"

"I'd sure hope you wouldn't use all of it." Brat said with a small chuckle. "An incredibly skilled group of adventurers wouldn't need an item at all, I'm sure. If everything goes smoothly, the most you'll be using would probably be just some water and an apple. Even then, don't worry about using some of the things in there. You have money. More than enough to buy you more items if needed."

"Yeah, and if you think you need anything else, just go ahead and buy it!" Lucca smiled. "You'll get money if you complete the mission. Sure, most of it goes to the guild, but they'll give you some of it, at least. Don't be afraid of spending your money."

"Alright! thanks, Lucca." As Sashy spoke, Dice looked around the crowd and at all of the pokemon around him. There were so many choices to pick from, and he wasn't sure if it really mattered which one he picked. Sure, Rapidash were faster, but...the fire on it wouldn't make for a comfortable ride. A Mudsdale wouldn't hurt, but it goes slower, which leads to a longer trip...

"No problem, Sashy." The Lucario patted the cactus pokemon on the head. Dice still found it impressive how Lucca would willingly touch a cactus. That either takes a lot of courage, or a lack of brains. "We just want to help a friend! It's the least we could do."

Brat nodded. "You've been looking forward to this for a long time, after all. We want to make sure that it starts off with a good start, and that your first mission is a good one."

"Oh..." Dice smiled widely as he looked between the two evolved pokemon. He looked like he might actually tear up. He also looked like he was about to pull the two into a hug, or maybe both. "You guys are the best."

Dice smiled just slightly at seeing the boy so happy, but after a moment of staring at the Maractus, he turned to see a Mudsdale close to the group of four. He walked to the pokemon and waved.

"Hey, how much do you pay?" he asked as he glanced behind him to see his partner still talking with his friends.

"It depends on where you're going," the Mudsdale answered, his voice much more articulate and professional than what Dice had been expecting. "But wherever you're going, I'll take you there as fast as I can. No scenic routes unless you ask for it."

"That's definitely what I want to hear." Dice chuckled. "How much is it to go to Ornatro Cavern and then back? We need to go in there for a mission."

"Ornatro Cavern?" the Mudsdale asked with a raise of an eyebrow. "That's quite a ways away, you know, but for there and back…"

Dice could practically see the gears in the ground type's (most likely) small brain turning as it tried to think of a good sum. He doubted Mudsdales were the smartest thing in Dualsa.

"Two hundred Pokedollars," he said. "I won't have anything less."

"Sounds like a good deal to me." Dice said with a grin. Just glancing at the coins that were in his bag, he could tell he had more than enough to pay for the ride. "I'll tell my partner over there, and then we'll get out of here. How long's the trip, anyways?"

"A few hours, I think," the Mudsdale said as Dice turned around to face his partner. The Sneasel couldn't help but let out a light groan at this, but nevertheless, he cupped his hands over his mouth to call to his partner.

"Hey! If you're done talking, we have a cavern to get to. Get moving, alright?"

The Maractus's ears perked up and he looked towards the ice type. He nodded and then hopped towards him, waving goodbye to the two pokemon he was talking to moments ago. "Alright, let's get going."

Dice nodded and gestured towards the Mudsdale, who towered over the two smaller pokemon. "Here, I'll help you on," he said as he got behind the boy and tried to grab the few parts of him that didn't have spikes.

"Oh, okay! Thanks!" Sashy chuckled, but that only lasted for a second as Dice threw him up and onto the Mudsdale's back. For a moment, Dice thought that he overshot, as Sashy had almost flew over the Mudsdale's back, but, with the held of vines that grew out of his hands, he was able to latch onto the Mudsdale and stay on top of him.

Dice then noticed a problem with his plan and he frowned. Oh, wait, how was he going to get up now?

"Hey, Sashy, think you could toss down a vine or something? I gotta get on."

Sashy held back a laugh and nodded. Vines grew out of his feet and tied around the Mudsdale's body, most likely to provide more stability to the cactus. Once the vines stopped growing, Sashy extended his hand out towards Dice. A vine slowly grew out of the cactus and moved towards Dice.

Once the vine came close enough to grab, Dice would do just that, and give it a tug to say he was ready to be pulled up. It took a moment for Sashy to gather his strength, but in a few moments, Dice was slowly being pulled off the ground.

"No offense," Sashy muttered as he pulled the dark type up onto the back of the Mudsdale, "but you're really heavy."

"Oh, yeah, I definitely feel no offense to that." Dice muttered as the Mudsdale slowly rose up to his full height. Before Dice could say anything, or even ask about how paying his ride was going to work, the Mudsdale bolted out of the hub and into the city streets. it was such a sudden start that Dice had to put his arms around Sashy, consequently feeling spikes dig into arms.

"Okay, buddy, the start was a bit too much. A bit of a warning next time would be nice."

"Sorry," the Mudsdale responded as they moved through the town, buildings passing by them and pokemon staying in their vision for only a few moments before leaving their sight. "But if we want to get to Ornatro Cavern as fast as possible, I need to move quickly."

"Right, whatever you say." Dice shook his head and tapped the mule pokemon's back. "Hey, what's your name anyways?" Knowing your ride's name was probably proper riding etiquette, right?

"My name is Stalwart." Already they had left the town, though that wasn't saying much, as the station lay close to the edge of town, but it had gotten Dice hopes up that maybe this ride wouldn't take that long. "And you two are?"

"I'm Sashy, and my friend's Dice!" Sashy had answered before Dice could even open his mouth. He must have been eager to introduce himself. "We just became a rescue team yesterday! We're going on our first mission today!"

"Oh, truly? I assumed you were going on a mission, what with those badges you have on you." The Mudsdale then made a sudden right turn, and it took all that Dice had to make sure he didn't fall off his ride. "I didn't know it was your first mission, though. Sounds incredibly exciting."

"It definitely is!" Sashy chuckled as he seemed to have no problems keeping a hold on the pokemon. "We're going to Ornatro Caverns. Have you been there before?"

"Well, I've been there a few times. I've been just about everywhere you can be. I have many stories to tell, you know."

"Really? That's so cool! Could you tell me some?"

"Of course! The only problem is trying to figure out where to begin. I have so many tales to tell, it's just hard to...wait! I have one! Now, there was this one time that…"

This was when Dice tuned out and instead began to take in his surroundings. As they moved along the path, they started to enter a forest, trees surrounding both sides of the path and by now making it impossible to go off of the path. Dice could see Mankeys moving through the trees, Venomoth being chased by Beedrill (which had reminded him of Magnus, the guild leader), and he saw the shapes of some bigger pokemon moving among the trees. The forest truly was alive.

Of course, Dice couldn't help but wonder how many fights were starting to break out in these forests. If what Soara said was true, and pokemon were becoming more hostile, then it must be very dangerous living in the forests. Maybe a countless number of fights were happening at this very moment, but he just couldn't see them.

Dice then glanced at Sashy, who was now in full conversation with the Mudsdale, who'd sometimes stop the conversation to tell some long winded story about how he took so and so to some place. Dice had to admit, the kid was very excited about the mission. This was obviously something he had been waiting for for a long time.

The Sneasel didn't think he could be able to handle having to wait so long to just do something he wanted to do. Whenever he wanted to do something, he was always able to do it. Heck, that's what being a thief was all about, right? Doing things you wanted to do? Sashy had to wait for years to do this. Years to just leave the city walls. He couldn't imagine waiting for so long…

"Dice?" The Sneasel blinked and shook himself out of his thoughts, focusing now on the grass type in front of him, who was staring at him with a curious tilt of the head and a small frown. Oh, he had been staring.

"Are you okay? Something wrong?"

"Nah, I was just thinking. Don't worry about me." Dice attempted to dismiss the Maractus's worried with a wave of his hand, and that seemed to work, as the grass type just shrugged.

"Hey, can I ask you something, Dice?" The Sneasel tilted his head and hummed questioningly, and Sashy took it as a sign to continue. "How'd you get caught? You said you were arrested, and that's sort of the whole reason why you're my partner now. What did you do?"

A grin slowly grew on Dice's face and he chuckled. "I've done a lot of things, kid," he answered. "A lot of crimes. Didn't get caught for all of them, thankfully, or else this guild may not be an option."

"But...how did you get caught, then? If you did so much? Shouldn't you have been good enough to not get caught?"

The grin on Dice's face wavered, but he kept his cool composure. "I made a mistake, is all," he answered, trying to sound casual. "I thought Innovan was asleep, or just not home. Turns out he was home, and definitely awake. The old man had called the police, probably with some psychic powers of his, and he caught me up in a fight. When I tried to leave, there was a cop at the door. Not much I could do."

"Oh, huh.." Sashy stared down at the ground for a few moments, taking time to think about that, before looking back at the ice type. "What have you done altogether? Who have you worked with?"

"If I told you who I worked with and what I've done, it'd take as long as one of Stalwart's stories here." He chuckled as he patted the Mudsdale on the back, and the pokemon huffed in response.

"I don't think I talk that much. Besides, the boy here likes it, and who am I to refuse telling a tale to him?"

"Whatever you say, mule." Dice leaned back and looked up at the sky. Clouds were starting to fill the sky, and it was getting dark. Hopefully it didn't rain. That'd make the whole ride a pretty dreadful experience. He hated getting his fur wet.

"But can't you just tell me a few of your stories?" Sashy asked as he turned around completely, now riding the Mudsdale backwards, and he began to give the Sneasel puppy dog eyes. Whether Sashy realized what he was doing or not, Dice had no idea, but it was definitely effective.

Dice stared at the kid and those now pleading eyes of his and realized that he couldn't say no, even if he wanted to. He didn't want to disappoint the kid. Not only did he not want to see those ears slump down and to have him look down at the ground with a frown on his face, but he also didn't want there to be silence the whole ride to Ornatro Cavern, and with sadness there was usually silence.

"You're really good at pulling off that guilt trip face," he muttered before shaking his head. "Yeah, yeah. Sure, I'll tell you."

"Yeah!" Sashy hopped lightly in his seat before leaning against his hands, getting closer to Dice than what was necessary.

"Well...here, let me tell you about my first, uh...adventure, we'll call it," Dice said. "As long as you don't tell anyone about this, I think it will be fine."

"Oh, I won't tell anyone! They might take you away if they find you guilty of any more crimes, and I don't want my partner taken away!" Sashy then looked over his shoulder, towards the Mudsdale's head. "You won't tell anyone, right, Stalwart?"

"My lips are sealed as long as it's a good story," the mule stated as he continued along the path. At least Stalwart wasn't going to snitch to the police. That rules out any possibilities of someone telling the police about this, at least.

"Okay, well, here...it started when I was young. When I first left home," he started. Not wanting to stay on the topic of home for too long, he continued. "I had met a small group of troublemakers at this point. I think they were a Wooper, a Paras, and a Pancham who was quite the cutie…"

Eventually, the words just started to flow out of Dice's mouth, and he probably couldn't stop himself if he even wanted to. He started remembering all of the details and couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia as he thought back to his first group of partners in crime. The two other pokemon with him seemed completely invested in his story.

After a while of talking, and finishing up the story of his first time stealing, he felt a few raindrops hit his fur. Normally he would have complained, but the only reaction he gave it was a slight twitch of his ear before continuing.

"Me and that group...we actually were a pretty good team," he said. "Sure, we weren't the biggest and baddest around, but I'd say that we did a good job considering our conditions. We stayed together after that first time, and we stayed together for a long time afterwards. It was almost a year before we started to fall apart."

"What happened then?" Sashy asked, and Dice could see the raindrops fall on him and be absorbed into his skin. The cactus pokemon must be enjoying the extra water he was absorbing. He may not even need the water bottle that was packed for him, actually.

"Well, things started to get a bit...unstable." The Sneasel shrugged. "The Wooper had evolved into a Quagsire, and he started to get riskier and riskier while we were out stealing things. The Pancham argued with him a lot, and she eventually just...gave up on us. The time we were forced to run away from the scene of the crime was the last straw for her. We were on a decline. She left the next day and we didn't have a leader."

"And...what happened after that?"

Dice ran a hand along his arm, feeling some fur that was starting to get wet. "Well, we didn't have a leader. The Quagsire tried to take up the mantle, but the Paras said he should be the leader now. She was the brains, after all. I stayed to the side, but their arguments had gotten pretty bad. The Quagsire then tried to steal something on his own, to prove that he had some good ideas, but he had gotten arrested while attempting it. That's when the Paras left the group. Then there was just me."

"So you decided to do your own thing?" The Sneasel nodded and Sashy copied the motion. "And then what happened?"

"I went from town to town, that's what." Sneasel shrugged. "I took what I had to to get some money. I stole some food sometimes, but mostly just valuables. I needed the money. What can I say? I was good at it, too. One of the few things I had experience in, and it's not like I could get a job with a lack of experience. So I just kept stealing. Honestly, I was probably going to get caught one way or another."

Dice chuckled and leaned backwards once more, looking up towards the sky. "It's a shame, too. I was hoping to be one of the better thieves in Dualsa. Guess that's not an option now that I'm caught, huh? Oh well."

Sashy nodded, but instead of looking away from the pokemon, he continued to stare at the Sneasel. "What do you plan on doing after your time's up?"

"Huh? Dice adjusted himself and looked at his partner. "When my time's up?"

"You know. You're only in the guild for so long. It's a type of community service. Are you planning on staying in the guild, or are you going to leave? What are you going to do afterwards?"

"Oh, I have no idea." Dice shrugged once more. "That's a few years away, though. I have a lot of time to think about it. Probably won't spend my time here, that's for sure. Got other things to do, kid. You know?"

"Yeah, right…" The Maractus's ears drooped just slightly and he let out a sigh. Dice soon realized that he had hit a soft spot and he frowned.

"Hey, kid, it's nothing against you. You know that, right?" The Maractus just shook his head and looked at the ground. "It's not that I don't want to be your partner or anything, it's just that-"

"Before you continue," Stalwart interrupted. "I think it's a good time to say we made it to your destination."

Dice blinked and looked around. Sure enough, there was a tall mountain in front of them. Not the tallest in the region, but it was definitely tall, and in the face of the mountain there was the opening of a cave, which lead who knows how deep into the mountain.

"Already?" Dice asked as he slowly slid off the Mudsdale. It was a big fall, but he managed to land on his feet. "That didn't feel like it took long at all."

"Well, time does fly when you're telling a good story." Stalwart chuckled as Dice held out his hands to catch Sashy once he slid off. He was pretty sure the kid wouldn't be able to land on his feet if he fell.

Sashy slowly slid off and Dice was able to catch him before he fell. He smiled at the kid before putting him down, though the kid didn't smile back. Apparently the topic of Dice staying or not was a sensitive one. He didn't know why it was such a big deal right now, though. Dice still had quite a ways to go before he could leave.

"You don't mind staying here, do you, Stalwart?"

"I will stay until you return, and then we will leave for Strikelm once more," he announced. "And that is where you will give me my payment."

"Sounds like a plan," Dice said before gesturing for Sashy to follow him as he walked towards the entrance of the cavern. Sashy followed, but not as excitedly as before. And, without any ceremony, they entered Ornatro Cavern, and Dice wondered just what this job had in store for them.

* * *

 **So, thanksgiving break had really thrown a wrench into the system, and I've been unable to update the story very often, and a case of writer's block lead me to not wanting to touch this story for a while, but now the story is here, and I'm going to try and do better on updating it. Not making any promises, but I'm trying.**

 **Uh...see you all in the next chapter.**


	9. Ornatro Cavern

p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Already Dice had found that Ornatro Cavern was an impressive landmark. As soon as he entered, he noticed gems all around. Tiny little gems glowing in the rocky walls of the cavern. His eyes were having a field day as they bolted from one shiny object to another, his mind immediately wondering how much all of these gems would even sell for. Did they seriously not mine this stuff now? That's stupid, you could make a fortune off of these! And people wonder why there's a lower class.../span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Wow, this looks pretty." Sashy hopped towards the wall and ran his spiked hand on one of the gems that was sticking out. It looked to be the size of an apple, from what was sticking out of the wall. Sashy seemed rather mesmerized by the shiny stone. "You think we can actually take these?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dice shrugged. "Even if we can, I don't think we have anything to cut them out with. My claws definitely can't cut through that." As he said this, though, his claws shined as the material changed to metal. He tried slicing at one of the gems that poked out of the wall, but the only thing he got as a result was little chunks falling off the gem, though they were so tiny that it wasn't even worth picking them up. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh, okay." The Maractus frowned slightly before turning around and moving back to Dice. Though, he didn't stop when he reached his partner, and instead moved further into the cave. "Come on! We have a kid to find." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah, what was it again?" Dice opened the bag that was slung around his shoulder and grabbed the paper with the job information on it. "Okay, Drifloon. A girl, too. Shouldn't be difficult finding a balloon in a cave."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""How far can we even go in this cave? Noctal said that it had poison gas in it, right? Wouldn't we die if we go too far in?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, we'll just make sure we don't go too far in," Dice shrugged once more. "Honestly, I don't think it's that big of a deal. If one of us starts to get dizzy, we tell the other and then we're out of here." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Uh...okay. If you think that will work." Sashy shook his head and continued along the path, which was currently lit by torches, thankfully. The mining operation that at the very least used to work here was nice enough to leave a few torches lying around. Dice could see in the dark, so it wasn't a problem for him, but his partner most certainly couldn't. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You think it's going to get dark in here after a while?" Sashy asked as they turned the corner. "I mean, the torches are going to run out eventually, aren't they?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""To be honest, I'm surprise there are even lit torches here." Dice shook his head. "They definitely won't last, though. After we get far enough, I'm sure they'll run out." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah, I guess you're right." Sashy ran his hand along the rocky wall as we moved. "I don't like the dark, though. You don't know what's going to be in the dark…" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, I mean, i do, but why don't you take a torch with you, kid? That should help out." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And be so close to fire?" Sashy shivered and shook his head. "My mom and dad always told me to stay away from fire, and I don't even want to get close to it anyways." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Alright. That's your decision, then." Dice chuckled and put his hands behind his head as he continued walking. Sure, he was an ice type too, and he had that same weakness to fire, but he would still grab a torch if he had to. He just wasn't going to because he could already see in the dark, or at least that's what he told himself./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"After passing by many dead ends on their path, which they spent some time going down before ignoring the rest of the paths, as they probably all lead to dead ends, they started to approach an opening in the cave system. Though, before they made it into the bigger room which the path opened up to, Dice stopped and his ears perked up just slightly./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey," he grabbed the Maractus as gently as he could and pulled him over to him. Sashy gave him a quizzical look, but he put a finger to his lips and looked to the opening. "Let me go first, alright?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He looked back to Sashy and saw him nodding. He mirrored the action before taking a slow step towards the room. He was trying not to make any noise. He could swear there was something in this room, and he wasn't taking any chances. It sounded like...some shifting around and some fluttering of wings. Right. He had a solution to this./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Slowly, Dice moved out from the passageway and into the mined out room. He glanced up to the ceiling. His hunch was correct, just like he suspected. There were dozens upon dozens of Zubat hanging from the ceiling cave, adjusting themselves and flapping their wings around in a restless sleep. He knew that if they were to wake up on their own, they would become hostile. That's why he needed to scare them away… /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dice's claws shined brightly as the material changed from keratin to metal. He slammed both of his claws into the ground with enough force to cause the whole room to shake. Little bits of rock fell from the ceiling and the entire room trembled slightly thanks to the sheer force Dice put behind his attacks, and it was more than enough to awaken the Zubats. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Instead of turning on him, like the Zubats would have done naturally, they were instead startled by the rumbling and took off into the air. The Zubats swarmed and flew around the room in a flurry of screeches and wings, causing Dice's ears to cry out in pain as the bats ran around chaotically. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Eventually they'd all direct themselves towards the doorway, where Dice had just came from. They charged right towards that passageway, and flew right into it. There was a loud scream, undoubtedly from Sashy, as the cactus pokemon would come running out of the passageway soon afterwards, his hands over his head and his eyes closed. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Get 'em off me, get 'em off me!" The younger pokemon fell to the ground and covered his head with his two little arms, his ears brought down to the point where they were touching the floor, and his whole body was shaking. It was a sorry sight to see. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey, kid, calm down. They're just Zubat's. They all flew away anyways. Trust me, I can hear them flying away right now." Dice walked over to the kid and stared down at him, not exactly comfortable with having the kid freak out so much. He offered a hand to help the kid up. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""They...they did?" Sashy shook his head and looked towards the path he had just came down. Seeing no Zubats coming his way, and not hearing anything, he slowly nodded and looked back at Dice, taking his hand and using it to pull himself up. "Okay, I guess they did." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dice nodded and patted his partner on the head. "Now, let's get moving again, huh?"/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah, okay. That sounds good." Sashy nodded once more and hopped away from his partner before taking a quick look around the room. He frowned, noticing there were two paths they could take. One lead straight ahead, and the other lead to the left. "Which way should we go?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dice blinked and looked between the two paths, trying to figure out which one to that. "Well, give me a moment," he said before moving towards the path that lead straight forward. He stared down it for a moment before shaking his head. No, this probably wasn't it. He then turned to the path that lead to the left and stood just in front of the path. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"This path seemed to slant down just slightly. It was hard to notice, but Dice was pretty sure it was. He also looked down the path and saw that, eventually, the torches stopped. That was probably a good sign. The kid probably went pretty deep into the cave, so the deeper they go, the better chance they have of finding the kid. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's down here," he said before walking down the path. "Also, if you really don't want to be in the dark, grab a torch now. They won't be there for much longer." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh, uh...okay." Sashy nodded and followed Dice down the path, looking at the torches that lined the wall and wondering if he should actually grab one of them. After a few moments of thought, he shook his head. No, fire was too dangerous… /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Who do you think dug this place out, anyways?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Probably Rhydons and Rhypheriors." Dice shrugged as he continued moving. "Not many other pokemon can work on this, now can they?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, Excadrills can, and so can Dugtrios if they try hard enough, but I heard that Innovan is making a new invention that will make mining a lot easier. Some sort of drill powered by electricity." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dice chuckled. "Are you kidding me? This guy's really trying to make people lose their jobs, isn't he?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Huh? What do you mean?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, think about it, instead of hiring a bunch of Rhyhorns and Excadrills, which you have to feed, pay for, and make sure you have living conditions, you can just buy a bunch of drills and only a few electric pokemon to power them up. You don't have need for those miners then. They lose their job." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah, but...you don't know if people who own mines would do that, right?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Are you kidding me? Of course they'd do that." Dice shook his head before eventually deciding to grab a torch off of the wall. Yeah, okay, he could see in the dark, but he wasn't going to guide Sashy around everywhere by grabbing his hand or something. "They're in it for the money anyways. Less people you need to pay is more money for them to stuff their bags with. They'd be swimming in cash if that keeps happening." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I don't know about that…" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I do." Dice chuckled as he looked around the path. By now the torches that were lighting the walls suddenly stopped. Instead just the base of torches were attached to the wall, but they weren't lit. Good thing he decided to grab a torch, then. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sashy had apparently chose not to respond to that, as there was a few minutes of silence as they continued to walk through the cave. Though, during those few minutes, Dice realized that he was having a harder time thinking. His thoughts were starting to get a bit murky, and it was getting difficult to think straight. Right, he was definitely going to the right place. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You feeling alright?" Dice asked as he turned around. He saw that Sashy was looking down at the ground. "I mean, you're not scared or anything, right?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Scared? Me?" Sashy chuckled and shook his head. He looked up at Dice and forced himself to smile, putting his hands on his hips. "I'm not scared! Come on, let's keep going!" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""That's good, because I think we might run into some angry pokemon down here," Dice commented as he looked around still. "I'm sure a lot of feral pokemon live in here, and they probably don't like people walking around their home." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah, I think you're right about that." The cactus shook his head as the path opened up to a decent sized room. It was about as big as the quest room back at the guild. Dice could just barely see past the light of his torch; his eyes refusing to adjust to the darkness around him. Just as he was about to take a step further into the room, he heard a loud thump next to him. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dice quickly turned around to see that there was a Geodude right next to him the light of his torch just barely illuminating the rock pokemon. The Geodude had balled his hand into a fist and he was about to punch Dice. All the Sneasel could do was try to defend himself from the pokemon, but the attack had never came. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Instead, the spikes on Sashy's hands glew a dark green color and he smacked the Geodude on the forehead with his arm. The Geodude flew backwards and a loud thump confirmed he had hit the wall. Before Dice could turn to his partner and thank him, the room was suddenly flooded by a bright white light, causing Dice to squint his eyes. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"In the brief moment that Dice could see the whole room, even with the light temporarily blinding him, he saw that Ferroseeds were dropping from the ceiling with a thud. He could also see, out of the corner of his eye, the way out of the room. It was past all of the Ferroseeds. Of course it was. That's just his luck. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What's happening, Dice?" Sashy asked, his arm covering his eyes from the bright light. Dice grabbed his hand, being careful not to prick himself, and then ran towards the exit. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ferroseeds, and a lot of them." He said as he ran across the room, his torchlight illuminating some of the Ferroseeds that had dropped from the ceiling, It was useful for trying to dodge them. "We gotta get out of here before they get us." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Uh, okay, yeah. Let's go!" Sashy didn't question where they were running to, and it was most likely because he wanted to just get out of the room. As Dice ran towards the exit, he saw pins that were as long as his claws shooting past his vision. They were shooting pin missiles at them!/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The pins, thankfully, didn't seem to hit any of them, as the Ferroseeds were bad shots, but they had hit the torch that Dice was carrying. A lot of them had hit the torch, actually. One pin had hit with so much force that it was shot out of his hand and flew towards the wall. With their light source gone, Dice continued running until he left the room, guiding Sashy by the hand. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Wait, our torch!" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""We can't go back for it now!" Dice continued to run, but as he did, he was beginning to stumble. He was starting to lose his balance and he was really finding it difficult to think now. The gas was getting stronger the farther he went, and he was finding it far too difficult to move. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"After running for a few minutes, he stopped and leaned against the wall, panting like a dog as he tried to catch his breath, but it only made it even harder to think as the gas got to him further. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You...you feeling okay, Sashy?" He turned to his partner and stared at him. He saw the frown on his face, as his eyes had adjusted to the dark now, and saw that he did not look happy. His ears were even drooping down. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm...starting to feel sick." He shook his head. "I think the gas is getting to me. Can't we go back up now?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And risk getting pinned to death by those Ferroseed? I don't think so." He shook his head and looked further down the path. "We can only go down farther." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh...I don't want to, though…" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh, come on, you can handle it," Dice said as he looked to Sashy with a smile. "You're a tough kid. Can't you get through this?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Uh, maybe. Just give me a moment, please." The kid then closed his eyes and looked down at the ground. Dice followed his gaze and saw roots digging into the ground, somehow penetrating the rocks at his feet. The boy then sat still, probably attempting to absorb any nutrients he could find in the ground to help himself. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""The soil here tastes awful," Sashy commented, his eyes still closed as his back hunched slightly. "Like the air. It tastes...almost polluted. I don't know if I like it."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dice remained silent and only shook his head before opening the bag around his shoulder and digging through it. He pulled out an apple and/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"took a big bite of it, savoring the taste and taking his time chewing. He wasn't much of a fruit kind of guy. He was mostly a carnivore, but he'd make an exception for now. Right now, this was definitely making him feel better. Sure, he was still disoriented, but he was feeling more energized. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Just as he finished about half of the apple, he noticed that the roots were slowly starting to go back into Sashy's feet. He looked up at the boy's face just in time to see his eyes open. A smile slowly grew on the cactus's face. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Okay, I think I'm ready," he said before hopping down the path. "You know, I think you're right. I can get through this if I just really try. I'm not going to be scared anymore! I'm going to go through the rest of this mission. I'm brave! I can do it!" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""That's the spirit. I figured you could do it" Dice said with a chuckle as he took another bite of his apple. He then wiped off whatever might have fallen onto his face and walked away from the wall. "Let's get moving, then. I doubt that we have much farther to go." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Right. I don't think so either." The Maractus smiled a bit wider before putting his hands together. "Actually, let me try something." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sashy then cupped his hands over his mouth and took a deep breath. "Hey, kid? Are you here?" His yelling was loud enough to make Dice cover his ears, but besides the yelling, and the echoes that would follow soon afterwards, he heard something else. It was faint, but it sounded like someone was responding. It was a very high pitched voice, too. A smile slowly grew on his face. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""That's it!" he said as he started to move down the path once more. "The kid's down here. Now let's get him out of here and leave this place for good." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah!" Sashy jumped into the air and followed the Sneasel down the path, his jumping causing maraca sounds to emit from his body and echo softly against the cavern walls./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"As they ran, Dice had started to notice the gems that were in the cave walls once more. This time, though, it wasn't because they were shiny, but it was because they were literally glowing. They were glowing green and illuminating the path just slightly. It was actually rather helpful with seeing further down the path. As they continued to run, though, the gemstones became more frequent, filling the walls of the cave and illuminating the area around them green. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"After a while more of running, when Dice noticed he was starting to become numb due to the fumes, he saw that the path was starting to open up and become wider. After a while longer, the path opened up once again into a gigantic room, looking as big as the training room back at the guild. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"When entering the room, he noticed that the cave still went even deeper into the earth. Of course, he wouldn't dare go any deeper. Any deeper into the cavern and he'd probably faint from the exposure to the fumes. Though, in the middle of the room, there was a single, purple, balloon-like pokemon. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Y-You came!" The Drifloon exclaimed in surprise. Dice noticed that there were tears in the pokemon's eyes. The poor kid must be terrified. "Please...please get me out of here. They're going to come back!" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""They?" Dice frowned and looked to Sashy, who seemed as confused as he was. He shook his head and looked back to the Drifloon. Thankfully the green light allowed Sashy to see as well, otherwise he might be freaking out like he was earlier with the Zubats. "Who's they?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Why don't you look up and you'll find out?" A deep, somewhat feminine voice boomed through the room, and Dice's ears perked up and twitched as he stared up only to see two dark red eyes peering down at him from the ceiling. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The eyes then suddenly fell down, and along with them came a body. The pokemon landed and the ground shook due to its weight. It landed right in front of the Drifloon child and Dice was able to get a good look as to what it was. It was a Gigalith, and a big one at that. /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Woah!" Sashy yelped and jumped backwards, his ears shooting straight up just to show his surprise. "Who are you?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The Gigalith chuckled. "Who I am is not important, but if you must know, my name is Colbalt. Though, it doesn't matter much. You're going to be dead in a few minutes."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Wait...we're going to die?!" Sashy shook his head. "This...this was a trap?" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Of course it was!" Dice wasn't sure if Gigalith's had mouths, but the lady would probably be grinning if she did. "We found this kid and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to trick a few rescue teams into coming in. Turns out I was right, like usual."/span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And? You think you can take us down?" Dice crossed his arms and looked the Gigalith up and down. "You're just one pokemon. Sure, you're big, but I doubt you can take the both of us." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh, but I'm not alone. You just haven't seen my partners yet." /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Suddenly, the ground next to Dice was shifting just slightly, and a small mound was forming. A few moments later, a Durant hopped out of the hole, causing Dice to jump back. Okay, bug types. Great… /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Tita the Terrible has arrived!" She shouted. "And we want all of your stuff. Everything! This is a stick up!" /span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""And after that," the Gigalith chuckled, "since we can't have you running around and telling you about us, we're going to make sure you never leave this cave." /span/p 


End file.
